For the first time in more than 20 years, the pendulum in the atrium of the Mathematical Sciences building is swinging back and forth again.<\/p>\n
The Foucault pendulum, named after\u00a0 French physicist L\u00e9on Foucault, was part of the original building and has been on campus since October 1970. Back then the pendulum hung unobstructed until people began pulling at the cable that holds the brass ball with sculptured end caps. In an effort to avoid accidents, a see-through barrier was installed. The pendulum broke down in the 1990s and sat idle until Eileen Swindling, \u201988, decided to do something about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a student, I found its gentle motion a reminder that life is about moving,\u201d said Swindling who studied business administration on campus in the late 1980s. \u201cAt times when I was discouraged, I visited the pendulum as a reminder that even bad things pass. It\u2019s up to\u00a0you to\u00a0keep your eye on the future and keep moving in that direction.\u00a0In fact, that idea is the true embodiment of UCF\u2019s history.”<\/p>\n
Swindling earned her degree in business administration in 1988 at UCF and then went on to earn her Certified Public Accountant license and an MBA from Nova Southeastern. She has a successful business with her husband and is a Knights fan.<\/p>\n
A $25,000 endowment was created, which paid for renovations and will help maintain the pendulum for years to come.<\/p>\n
A pendulum is a mounted structure that can swing freely under the influence of gravity. UCF\u2019s pendulum was crafted by hand at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. Several museums around the world have Foucault pendulums, which are as much art as they are academic instruments used to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. UCF\u2019s pendulum sits above a seal that bears UCF\u2019s original name: Florida Technological University.<\/p>\n
Swindling visited campus recently when the pendulum was reactivated. She was thrilled to have helped get it swinging again so her children can see it in operation. Both her grown children attend UCF. One is a political science major and the other is studying film.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the first time in more than 20 years, the pendulum in the atrium of the Mathematical Sciences building is swinging back and forth again. The Foucault pendulum, named after\u00a0 French physicist L\u00e9on Foucault, was part of the original building and has been on campus since October 1970. Back then the pendulum hung unobstructed until people began pulling at the…","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":70695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6,27],"tags":[982,202],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-70693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community","category-student-life","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-alumni"],"yoast_head":"\n