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From: gwyn@brl-smoke.ARPA (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.origins
Subject: Re: Foucault pendulum
Message-ID: <2071@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 25-Mar-86 11:15:01 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-smok.2071
Posted: Tue Mar 25 11:15:01 1986
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In article <133@mit-trillian.MIT.EDU> vis@trillian.UUCP (Tom Courtney) writes:
>Hmm, the way a foucalt pendumlum behaves proves that the earth is rotating?
>I was taught that in school too, but then I read an article claiming that
>if the universe rotated around the earth, the pendulum would do the same thing.

It would, if Mach's principle is true.  Is Mach's principle true?
If you believe in conventional general relativity, Mach's principle
is true only if certain cosmological constraints exist.  Are these
constraints true?  Who knows?