Although that is rather an old-fashioned science museum, it is one of the
few places I've been that has a Foucault pendulum marked to show where the
bob will be at a given hour -- the point being that it does *not* go
through a full circle in 24 hours, as many suppose. (It would only do so at
the poles.) I confess that I myself was unaware of the latitude dependence
until I visited the CNAM. The precise equation involved is a simple example
of a natural context in which the cosecant function arises.
Dr. John W. Dawson, Jr.
Professor of Mathematics
Penn State York
1031 Edgecomb Avenue
York, PA 17403 U.S.A.
Tel.: 717-771-4131 (work)
717-846-1225 (home)
FAX: 717-771-8404