Earth quirks

Lynn Poole briefly explains Copernicus's theory and the difference between revolution and rotation. Malcolm Davies, author of "A Geographic Gadgeteer" and instructor at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, proves to viewers that the earth rotates and revolves. He starts a pendulum swinging along a line in the studio, like Foucault's 1851 experiment, and returns to it at the end of the program to show that the room has rotated about 3 degrees during the half hour. During the rest of the show, he demonstrates a Trippensee planetarium, explains why water funnels in a counter-clockwise spiral in the northern hemisphere, and describes how a monkey wrench dropped into a mine shaft drifts to the east before landing because of the earth's rotation. He then explains how the earth revolves in orbit around the sun, mentioning Frederich Wilhelm Bessel's 1838 theory of stellar positions based on astronomer James Bradley's observations. Davies also simulates the approach of meteors at difference times of the day to demonstrate the earth's revolution around the sun.