1. The spheroidal shape of the Earth, slightly flattened at the poles
and swollen at the equator, has been produced by the rotary motion, by
the centrifugal force that it engenders.
2. In virtue of this centrifugal force, which is at its maximum at the
equator, objects lose a little of their weight in proportion as they are
farther removed from the polar regions where centrifugal force is almost
_nil_.
3. In virtue of this same centrifugal force, the length of the pendulum
in seconds is shorter at the equator than in Paris, and the difference
is one of 3 millimeters.
4. A weight abandoned to itself and falling from a certain height,
should follow the vertical if the Earth were motionless. Experiment,
frequently repeated, shows a slight deviation to the East, of the
plumb-line that marks the vertical. We more especially observed this at
the Pantheon during the recent experiments.
5. The magnificent experiment of Foucault at the Pantheon, just renewed
under the auspices of the Astronomical Society of France, demonstrates
the rotary motion of the Earth to all beholders. A sufficiently heavy
ball (28 kilograms, about 60 pounds) is suspended from the dome of the
edifice by an excessively fine steel thread. When the pendulum is in
motion, a point attached to the bottom of the ball marks its passage
upon two little heaps of sand arranged some yards away from the center.
At each oscillation this point cuts the sand, and the furrow gets
gradually longer to the right hand of an observer placed at the center
of the pendulum. The plane of the oscillations remains fixed, but the
Earth revolves beneath, from West to East. The fundamental principle of
this experiment is that the plane in which any pendulum is made to
oscillate remains invariable even when the point of suspension is
turned. This demonstration enables us in some measure to see the Earth
turning under our feet.
The annual displacements of the stars are again confirmatory of the
Earth's motion round the Sun. During the course of the year, the stars
that are least remote from our solar province appear to describe minute
ellipses, in perspective, in the Heavens. These small apparent
variations in the position of the nearest stars reproduce the annual
rotation of the Earth round the Sun, in perspective.
We could adduce further observations in favor of this double movement,
but the proofs just given are sufficiently convincing to leave no doubt
in the mind of the reader.