140) “Foucault’s Pendulums are often quoted as proof of a rotating Earth but upon closer investigation prove the opposite. To begin with, Foucault’s pendulums do not uniformly swing in any one direction. Sometimes they rotate clockwise and sometimes counter-clockwise, sometimes they fail to rotate and sometimes they rotate far too much. The behavior of the pendulum actually depends on 1) the initial force beginning its swing and, 2) the ball-and-socket joint used which most-readily facilitates circular motion over any other. The supposed rotation of the Earth is completely inconsequential and irrelevant to the pendulum’s swing. If the alleged constant rotation of the Earth affected pendulums in any way, then there should be no need to manually start pendulums in motion. If the Earth’s diurnal rotation caused the 360 degree uniform diurnal rotation of pendulums, then there should not exist a stationary pendulum anywhere on Earth!”

Foucault’s pendulum is powerful evidence against a flat Earth.

here are some good animations explaining why:

http://www.animations.physics.unsw.edu.au/jw/foucault_pendulum.html

Dubay’ s excused are feeble and false. A Foucault pendulum doesn’t depend for it’s motion on the original push, and a ball and socket joint (which not all Foucault’s Pendulums use) does not “more readily facilitate circular motion over any other”.

Think about it – what aspect of the joint would make it harder for the arm of the pendulum to move to-and fro in any direction, or to circle or whatever?

Not that the word “circular” accurately describes the motion, anyway – see this video

 It’s true that a ball and socket joint permits free movement in any direction, including a circle, but it doesn’t favour it. Play with such a joint in a hardware store, or simply think about it. 

And notice yet again that Mr Dubay quotes an old nonsensical claim but offers no evidence.