Abstract
A MISCONCEPTION seems to prevail among seismologists as to the behaviour of a spirit-level. A displacement of the bubble is regarded as conclusive evidence of the tilting of the instrument. It should be pointed out, however, that this is far from being the case. For a second cause, equally effective in producing displacement of the bubble, is a horizontal acceleration of the instrument in the direction of the tube. The position of the bubble should be taken as indicating, not the normal statical vertical, but the dynamical residual vertical obtained by subtracting the acceleration of the instrument (as a vector) from that of gravity. (I disregard, in this statement, the slight lag due to viscosity.)
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BENNETT, G. The Spirit-level as a Seismoscope. Nature 72, 80 (1905). https://doi.org/10.1038/072080a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/072080a0
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