alt.energy.renewable

On Mar 31, 9:23=A0am, Guy Macon wrote:
> Bret Cahill wrote:
> >The Foucault pendulum would do the same thing.
>
> No it would't. =A0A Foucault pendulum does not extract any
> energy from the earth's rotation. =A0To understand why,
> imagine one at one of the poles. =A0Now imagine stopping
> the earth's rotation. =A0From a reference frame "fixed in
> space" (a point where the starfield no longer appears
> to rotate is close enough), the motion of the Foucault
> pendulum does not change at all, and thus is unaffected
> by the earth's rotation, neither gaining energy from it
> or losing energy to it.

But the Foucault pendulum might be something we could stand on to
extract energy not from the pendulum, but from that rotating Earth.
Then again, it might not - one would need at least a good gyroscope,
and remember that it will try to go in a perpendicular direction...

John Savard