How can one detect the rotation of the Earth "around the Moon"? Part 3. With a simple pendulum

Marcel Betrisey; Bertrand M. Roehner

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arXiv · 1306.5234

How can one detect the rotation of the Earth "around the Moon"? Part 3. With a simple pendulum

Marcel Betrisey·Bertrand M. Roehner

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Abstract

The attraction of the Moon on objects at the surface of the Earth gives rise to a so-called tidal force which is of the order of 1/10,000,000 times the gravitational force of the Earth. For instance, when the Moon is located between the Earth and the Sun (new moon) the distance from a given terrestrial location to the Moon is shorter at noon than at midnight. This reduces the gravitational acceleration and therefore increases the period of a simple pendulum by a small amount. Although the change is of the order of 100 nanoseconds it appears that it can be detected. We give some preliminary results and discuss how the accuracy can be further improved. It is hoped that the present paper will encourage new experiments in this direction.

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Marcel Betrisey, Bertrand M. Roehner. 2013-06-21. How can one detect the rotation of the Earth "around the Moon"? Part 3. With a simple pendulum. https://arxiv.org/abs/1306.5234

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