Leon the Pendulum - Austin, Texas

www.utexas.edu
Visit the architectural wonder that is Leon the Pendulum (named after the French physicist Jean Bernard Léon Foucault). Installed in 1983 and located in the lobby of DEV, the Development Office Building (2901 N. I-35), the pendulum remains a well-visited attraction which won the Austin Chronicle 2007 award for Best Moment of Zen That's Not on 'The Daily Show.' Spanning four stories, Leon appears to rotate once every 48 hours, although it actually swings back and forth in the same place while the Earth turns beneath it.

[@brianwilless1589]

Is there a pendulum at the equator? Some university or museum?

[@ifafv]

The Coriolis force, which drives the Foucault pendulum's precession, works clockwise in the northern and counterclockwise in the southern hemisphere. Therefore, at or near the equator, there is no or very little Coriolis force. Hence a Foucault pendulum cannot work there. The closest one to the equator seems to be at the Simon Bolivar Library at the University in Caracas, Venezuela; it takes 138 h to rotate. The furthest one from the equator is probably at the Consortium Library at the University of Alaska Anchorage; it takes 28 hours to rotate.