Eclipse Chasing with a Pendulum
-Thomas Goodey reports from the Maldives

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First, the entire group wishes to say that they are particularly pleased with and grateful for the excellent help and cooperation that the Maldivian people, and particularly of the people of Addu atoll, have given to make possible this greatest gathering of pendulum specialists ever.

Status report (January 10, 2010)
The Olenici experiment in the unfinished building is ready to roll under the supervision of Lesanu. Meanwhile, Olenici is flying to the capital, Male, about 530 km away, tomorrow afternoon. There, he will set up an (almost) identical pendulum, so that we can have two comparable experiments. (The eclipse is annular in Male, but not quite here, where it is deep partial.) Verreault is now calibrating his pendulum. I will take pictures tomorrow. I have been doing preliminary trials with my pendulum, which worked flawlessly. I shall start the actual eclipse run tomorrow evening.

(January 11,2010)
I attach a calibration graph that Prof. Verreault has made for his 9 m pendulum here in Addu. (click image left for better view)

He has measured the period rather exactly along a number of different swing azimuths and plotted the results, and fitted a sine curve (as predicted by theory).Thereby he is able to ascertain the two eigen-directions of the pendulum - i.e. the direction of swinging in which the period is the longest, and the direction in which it is the shortest. Theory predicts that these two directions should be perpendicular.

He is also able to quantify the magnitude of the OLG precession, which is one of the three elements of precession that affect a pendulum in practice.

This procedure was first carried out by Prof. V in July 2009 in Japan. We do not believe this very important calibration for a Foucault pendulum was ever performed before. This is the second time.

This pendulum is quite unique for the following reasons:

(A) One sees that the periods along the eigen-directions differ by about 1 partin 80,000. This means that the magnitude of the OLG precession will be negligible over the time of the experiment.

(B) The length of the pendulum (9 m) and the high quality of the release (small minor axis upon release) which we have previously quantified (and which we will be able to check post hoc anyway), imply that the Airy precession will also be negligible.

(C) Since the latitude of the pendulum is about 36' South, this means that the Foucault precession will also be negligible.

Hence, for the first time ever in the world, we have a pendulum which will not precess at all, and we know why, and we have proved it.

Since this pendulum is set up very near to the track of the eclipse next Friday, we have a unique situation. If there is any disturbance due to Allais effect, it will be completely unmasked.

Meet the Team:

Rene Verreault (father), professor of physics, University of Quebec (Chicoutimi), Canada. Maxime Verreault (son), professor of physics, University of Quebec (College Ste-Foy, Quebec City), Canada. This team has installed a long pendulum in a 9-meter elevator shaft in Hithadhoo (Addu). The motion of the pendulum is recorded with a high-resolution video camera and followed by computer. They hope to confirm observations they first made in Canada in 2001 relating to the influence of the Moon upon the pendulum. They also are interested in investigating the Allais effect, which is the abnormal disturbance of a pendulum during a solar eclipse, as yet unexplained.

Hector Munera, professor of physics (Newtonian mechanics), National University, Bogota, Colombia (retired) Currently, Prof. Munera is devoted full-time to his main passion: research into the foundations of classical physics. He is in Maldives to witness the operation of the various pendulums that will be gathering data during the solar eclipse. He will use that data to determine if there are aspects of the dynamical behaviour of the pendulums during the eclipse that cannot be explained by current gravitational theory, and, if the answer is positive, to try develop an appropriate theoretical model.

Thomas Goodey, independent researcher, London, England Since 2004 he has been constructing and improving a robotically operated short pendulum apparatus for investigation of the Allais effect. So far he has transported the equipment to the sites of six solar eclipses, and now it is set up in Feydhoo, Addu atoll. He hopes to see some interesting phenomenon during the eclipse, and he is also very happy to be the first person ever to perform pendulum experiments upon the Equator.

Dimitrie Olenici, astronomer, Suceava Planetarium and Observatory, Suceava, Romania. Cezar Lesanu, astronomer, Suceava Planetarium and Observatory, Suceava, Romania This team has been researching the Allais effect, and the associated Jeverdan effect, since 2001 in Romania, using various types of pendulum of various lengths. Professor Olenici has more experience of this type of experiment than anyone else in the world, having personally performed more than 4,000 hours of observations. During this eclipse, using similar pendulums of around 4 m in length, they will perform two coordinated experiments 530 km apart: one in Hithadhoo (Addu) and one in Male. The comparison of the results will be of extreme interest. Professor Lesanu is also a dedicated radio amateur, and is using his time in Addu to make amateur radio contacts worldwide. Very many amateurs seem to be rather excited about the possibility of making contact with such an exotic location.

Edward Oberg, mechanical engineer / project manager (retired), Sydney, Australia He is here to observe the progress of the pendulum experiments during the solar eclipse and to correlate the results with the Iasoberg Model (www.iasoberg.com), a proposed pattern which he has developed for the pattern of the Allais effect across the Earth's surface, that makes predictions for severe weather events and earthquakes. He is also coordinating data collection during the eclipse from a number of gravimeter stations around the Indian Ocean, for integration into his model.