Courses: P3, P13, P15, P44
Rotating reference frame; Coriolis effect.
We have two versions of this -- one small and easily portable, and one quite large.
A camera is mounted high above a turntable, so it rotates with the table. this allows one to view the turntable from the rotating reference frame; of course one can also see what's happening from the room's reference frame.
While the table is rotating, a ball can be rolled across the table. You can also suspend a pendulum from the top of the larger omega machine, to view its motion in the rotating reference frame; this is a potential analog for the Foucault pendulum in Fairchild Tower.
The large machine has the advantage that it has no support rod in the center, allowing one to roll a ball directly through the center of the turntable, or to hang a pendulum from the center. The small one has the advantage that it's not huge and doesn't take a long time to set up!
Setup: The best camera to use for this is a cell phone. Start Zoom on the cell phone and also sign into the same Zoom room on the classroom computer -- allowing you to project the image. A cell phone holder can be mounted on the top of the pole for the small machine, or about 2/3 of the way up one of the support rods of the large machine.
For the small version, there is a pipe with some tape on it that adapts the hole in the turntable to take a standard lab stand rod.
