title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: For the second round in Brazil, the top four were the same again in qualifying, with Häkkinen and Coulthard starting 1–2 ahead of Michael Schumacher and Barrichello. Schumacher, who was on a two-stop strategy took the lead within two laps, built up a 20-second gap, and pitted. He rejoined in second, behind Häkkinen. Coulthard was suffering from gearbox problems, and so was not quick enough. Barrichello, who was also on a two-stopper was stuck behind Häkkinen for 15 laps, before passing him, and this compromised his race. He rejoined fourth after his stop, but his engine blew up soon after. Häkkinen was starting to edge away from Michael Schumacher, until he had to retire with an oil leak. This gave Schumacher the win, ahead of Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella. There was controversy after the race when all the drivers in the top six with the exception of Fisichella were excluded because of problems with their wooden floors. The teams appealed but when the FIA was scrutineering the cars again, they found out that the front wing endplates on Coulthard's car were lower than they should have been. Thus, the position of everyone except for Coulthard was reinstated. The final top three were: Michael Schumacher, Fisichella and Frentzen. Notably, Jenson Button was sixth, and got his first ever championship point. He also set the record for the youngest F1 driver to score a point.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: After two rounds, Michael Schumacher had a maximum 20 out of 20 points, and no one else had even ten, and notably both McLaren drivers had none. Second was Fisichella with 8, with Barrichello third with 6. Ferrari also had a big lead in the Constructors' Championship with 26 points, the second being Benetton with 8, and the third being Williams with 7. McLaren had none.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The European season started off in San Marino, and Häkkinen took his third consecutive pole, with Michael Schumacher splitting the McLarens, and Barrichello was fourth. Häkkinen and Schumacher maintained their positions at the start, while Barrichello got past Coulthard. The race developed into a battle between Häkkinen and Schumacher, and quick in and out laps during the second round of pitstops enabled the latter to take the lead. Schumacher won, with Häkkinen second, and Coulthard third ahead of Barrichello.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Round four was in Britain, and in a wet-dry qualifying, Barrichello took his third pole position of his career, beating Frentzen by three-thousandth of a second, with the McLarens on the second row, Häkkinen ahead of Coulthard. Michael Schumacher could manage only fifth. At the start, the top two got away well and kept their places, while Coulthard got ahead of his teammate, and Schumacher lost three places. Frentzen was on a two-stop strategy, and pitted, leaving Barrichello leading from Coulthard and Häkkinen. Barrichello kept a gap till his car started suffering from engine and hydraulic problems, and Coulthard took the lead on lap 30 with a superb passing manoeuvre on the outside at Stowe. He pitted two laps later, giving back the lead to the fading Barrichello. Barrichello hung around until lap 35 when he spun at Luffield, and drove his car to the pits only to find out his team weren't ready. He waited until the stop was over, only to find out that he couldn't restart the car as his hydraulics had completely failed.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: This left him with no option but to retire. Frentzen now led, but after his second stop he rejoined fourth behind the McLarens and the Ferrari of Schumacher. Frentzen's gearbox failed 6 laps from the end, forcing him to retire. Coulthard took his second consecutive home victory, ahead of Häkkinen who completed the McLaren 1–2, with Schumacher third.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The win got Coulthard to second in the standings with 14 points, but 20 behind Michael Schumacher who had 34. Häkkinen had 12, and Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher had nine. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari had 43 points, while McLaren had 26.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Round five was in Spain, and Michael Schumacher took his first pole of the year ahead of Häkkinen, Barrichello and Coulthard (who was not 100% fit after a plane crash in France). Schumacher and Häkkinen stayed first and second after the start, but their teammates had lost out to Ralf Schumacher. Michael Schumacher stalled during the second round of stops, and lost the lead to Häkkinen. After the stops, Michael Schumacher had a problem with his tyres, and was passed by Coulthard, Ralf Schumacher and Barrichello. He then pitted, and rejoined fifth. Häkkinen took his first win of the season, with Coulthard making it a second successive McLaren 1–2, and Barrichello completed the podium. Michael Schumacher was fifth behind his brother.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The European Grand Prix, held at the Nurburgring in Germany was next. Coulthard took pole ahead of Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen and Barrichello. Coulthard did not have a great start and was quickly passed by Schumacher. Häkkinen, however, had a blinder and shot past both of them. And then the rain came, resulting in Schumacher passing Häkkinen on lap 11 at the chicane. Schumacher kept the lead, Coulthard passed Häkkinen, and Barrichello was down in ninth. Häkkinen passed Coulthard, who was struggling badly with a problem. There were no more changes at the front. Schumacher won from Häkkinen, Coulthard was third but was lapped, and Barrichello charged back up from ninth to fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: With over a third of the season complete, Michael Schumacher led the championship with 46 points, Häkkinen was second with 28, Coulthard was third with 24, and Barrichello was fourth with 16. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari had 62 points, McLaren had 52, and Williams were best of the rest with 15.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The glamorous Monaco Grand Prix was the seventh round, and Michael Schumacher eased to pole. Jordan found some pace, with Trulli getting second ahead of Coulthard, and Frentzen fourth ahead of Häkkinen. As the race started, the top drivers maintained their places, but in the midfield, Jenson Button tipped Pedro de la Rosa into a spin, blocking the track. The race had to be red-flagged. Out came the second start, and all the drivers started cleanly. The Jordans were not as quick as they were in qualifying, and Trulli was clearly holding up Coulthard, and the latter could do nothing about it. Schumacher shot out into the distance at a second a lap. Then, on lap 37, Trulli retired with a gearbox failure, releasing Coulthard. Coulthard closed in on Schumacher, but with a gap of 36 seconds, there was nothing much he could do until Schumacher suffered suspension failure on the 55th lap, forcing him to retire. Häkkinen was fifth until he slowed down with a problem. The team were able to fix it and send him back out again. Frentzen, who was running second punted his car into the wall with eight laps to go, in an attrition-filled race. Coulthard took the win, ahead of Barrichello and Giancarlo Fisichella, while Häkkinen mustered sixth place.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Now to North America for the Canadian GP. Michael Schumacher took pole ahead of Coulthard, Barrichello and Häkkinen. The top two kept their grid positions into the first corner, but Jacques Villeneuve was up to third ahead of Barrichello and Häkkinen. This allowed the top two to pull away. And then Coulthard was given a ten-second stop-and-go penalty because his mechanics worked on his car less than 15 seconds before the parade lap. He rejoined in the midfield. Barrichello passed Villeneuve on lap 25, but the gap to Schumacher was 27 seconds. Häkkinen took third from Villeneuve on lap 28, and the order settled down until it started raining. Everyone pitted for wets, and the order was shuffled completely. Schumacher stayed first, but Fischella had got ahead of Barrichello and Häkkinen, with Trulli fifth. A mistake from Fisichella allowed Barrichello through into second. Michael Schumacher took his fifth win of the season, with Barrichello making it a Ferrari 1–2 ahead of Fisichella. Häkkinen had to be content with fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: With nearly half the season over, Michael Schumacher had a 22-point lead in the standings, with 56 points to Coulthard's 34. Häkkinen and Barrichello were not far behind, with 32 and 28 points respectively. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari had an 18-point lead over McLaren, with 84 points to the McLaren's 66. Benetton were third with 18.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The French Grand Prix was next on the calendar. Michael Schumacher took his third consecutive pole, and again Coulthard was second, Barrichello third and Häkkinen fourth. When the race started, Schumacher kept first but Coulthard was beaten by Barrichello. Schumacher slowly started to pull away from his teammate and built a lead. Coulthard's car handled better as the fuel load decreased, and on lap 22, he passed Barrichello. During the round of pitstops, Barrichello lost out to Häkkinen. Schumacher's tyres were badly blistered, and so the McLarens and Barrichello started to close in on him. Coulthard tried to pass him at the outside of the Adelaide hairpin but Schumacher pushed him wide. Coulthard was not happy and made a series of irate gestures. A few laps later, Coulthard went for the inside at the same corner and made the move cleanly. Coulthard apologized for his gestures after the race. Schumacher kept second until 12 laps from the end when his engine blew up. Coulthard won, with Häkkinen making it a McLaren 1–2, and Barrichello completed the podium.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The A1-Ring in Austria was the host for Round ten. Häkkinen and Coulthard started 1–2, for the first time since Brazil, with the Ferraris of Barrichello and Schumacher in third and fourth respectively. The McLarens maintained their positions at the start, but there was carnage behind, with the Ferraris at the centre. Trulli hit the back of Barrichello, and at the same time, Ricardo Zonta hit Schumacher, tipping him to a spin. Schumacher spun in Trulli's path, causing a collision between the two drivers that lead to their retirements from the race. During the mayhem that followed, Mika Salo emerged third and Pedro de la Rosa emerged fourth, with Barrichello down in ninth. The McLarens quickly disappeared into the distance, while de la Rosa took third from Salo. Barrichello charged back up to fourth, which became third when de la Rosa's engine failed, putting him out from third. Häkkinen and Coulthard gave McLaren their fourth 1–2, with Barrichello finishing third. After the race, McLaren were penalized and lost 10 Constructors' Championship points because an FIA seal was found to be missing from Häkkinen's car; Häkkinen did not lose any points.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: With ten races out of 17 finished, Michael Schumacher led the championship with 56 points, whilst Coulthard was only 6 points behind with 50, and Häkkinen a further two points behind with 48. Barrichello was fourth with 36, and Fisichella was fifth with 18. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari led by only 4 points now, with 92 compared to McLaren's 88. Williams were third with 19.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Now to Germany, and Coulthard took his second pole ahead of Michael Schumacher, with Fisichella taking third from Häkkinen in a dry-wet qualifying. Häkkinen had one of his best ever starts, and shot up to first even before the first corner. Schumacher was hit from behind by Fisichella, and both were punted into the wall. This left Häkkinen and Coulthard running 1–2, with no one to challenge them. After 25 laps out of 44, the McLarens were half a minute ahead of third-placed Trulli. de la Rosa was fourth, ahead of Barrichello who was both recovering from a bad qualifying. And then, a disgruntled Mercedes-Benz employee ran to the track with a banner. The safety car was out, while the man was taken away. Everyone took the chance to pit, and Coulthard lost out badly because McLaren could not take both their cars at the same time. As the race restarted, it started raining. However, it rained only in some portion of the track. Everyone with the exception of Barrichello and Frentzen pitted. This left Barrichello leading ahead of Frentzen, Häkkinen, Trulli and Coulthard. Those on dries were lapping as quick as those on wets. Trulli was given a stop-go penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. Frentzen lost second when his gearbox failed. This left Barrichello to take his first ever win ahead of Häkkinen and Coulthard.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The drivers went to Hungary for the next round, and Michael Schumacher took pole ahead of Coulthard, Häkkinen, Ralf Schumacher and Barrichello. Häkkinen again started like a rocket, and beat both Michael Schumacher and Coulthard into the first corner. Häkkinen pulled away, and Coulthard was held up by Schumacher. Coulthard would have got in front of Schumacher at the second round of stops, but lost time behind Gastón Mazzacane and then Marc Gené. This meant he emerged a fraction behind Schumacher. Häkkinen won, with Schumacher and Coulthard making up the podium. Barrichello beat Ralf to fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Häkkinen's win had now given him the lead in the championship, with 64 points to Schumacher's 62. Coulthard was third with 58, and Barrichello fourth with 49. Fisichella was fifth with 18. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren took the lead from Ferrari, a lead of 1 point, with 112 compared to Ferrari's 111. Williams were third with 24.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: Round 13 out of 17 was in Belgium. Häkkinen took pole, and much to his joy, Trulli and Button took second and third, pushing Michael Schumacher and Coulthard down to fourth and fifth. It was wet at the start, but the top 5 maintained their positions. Häkkinen immediately set about building up a lead. On lap five, Button tried to pass Trulli, and they collided. Trulli was out, and Button lost places. Schumacher and Coulthard gladly took second and third. The former now started to close in on Häkkinen, and took the lead when Häkkinen had a half-spin on lap 12. As the track dried out, everyone changed from wet to dry tyres. Coulthard stayed out too long, and dropped from third to ninth. On a dry track, Häkkinen was faster than Schumacher, and chased him down. With four laps to go, he made a move, but Schumacher turned at him and forced him to the grass at 200 mph. On the next lap, when they were coming to lap Ricardo Zonta, the two men took either sides, and when they turned, Häkkinen was ahead. Häkkinen went on to win and Schumacher had to be content with second. Ralf was third, and Coulthard bounced back to finish fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The next round was in Italy, the home of Ferrari. Their drivers did not disappoint, Schumacher and Barrichello giving them their first 1–2 start of the season, ahead of Häkkinen, Villeneuve and Coulthard. At the start, Schumacher and the McLarens started well, but Barrichello and Villeneuve started badly. Schumacher and Häkkinen were first and second, with Coulthard third. Into the second chicane, and Frentzen just braked too late, and hit the back of Barrichello and Trulli, who were running side by side. All three spun, and Coulthard too was collected in the confusion. Later, it came out that a fire marshal, Paolo Ghislimberti had been killed after he was hit on the chest by a wheel from this collision. The top three at the end of this carnage were: Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen and Ralf Schumacher. The race restarted after 10 laps behind the safety car, and Michael Schumacher and Häkkinen quickly pulled away from the rest. Häkkinen tried to outpace Schumacher, but he was just not as quick as the latter. Michael Schumacher took his sixth win of the year, ahead of Häkkinen and Ralf. After the race, Schumacher burst into tears in the press conference, when told that he had equalled Ayrton Senna's record of 41 wins, and about Ghislimberti's death.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: With three more races to go, Häkkinen still led Michael Schumacher by two points, with 80 compared to the latter's 78. Coulthard was all but out of it, and was third with 61. Barrichello was fourth with 49, Ralf was fifth with 20, and Fisichella sixth with 18. In the Constructors' Championship, McLaren had 131 points, and a lead of four points over Ferrari who had 127. Williams was third with 30.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The United States Grand Prix hosted the 15th round, and Michael Schumacher took his seventh pole of the season. Coulthard was second, with Häkkinen and Barrichello third and fourth. Before the race, it rained, and so everyone started on wet tyres. The red lights stayed longer than usual for the start, and Coulthard took off a little too early. This gave him the lead, but it was clear that he would suffer a penalty. He led, ahead of Schumacher and Häkkinen. He knew he would have to suffer a penalty, and blocked Schumacher so that his teammate could close in. Schumacher was having none of it, and passed Coulthard on lap 7 at the first corner. The track began to dry out, and Häkkinen pitted for dries. He came out behind Gastón Mazzacane, and was stuck there. Coulthard soon had his penalty and dropped out of contention. The Ferraris stayed out late, and while Schumacher was ten seconds in the lead, Barrichello rejoined in the mid-field. The top three after the change for dries were Michael Schumacher, Häkkinen and Ralf Schumacher. Häkkinen set a string of fastest laps, and closed down a ten-second gap to Michael Schumacher to four in ten laps, only for his engine to blow up on lap 25. Michael Schumacher was left with a big lead ahead of his brother, which became even bigger when Ralf's engine failed with 12 laps to go, giving second to Frentzen. Frentzen, however was soon passed by a charging Barrichello. Schumacher had a spin towards the end, but hit nothing and survived. He went on to win, with Barrichello making it a Ferrari 1–2, and Frentzen completed the podium.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: This win, coupled with Häkkinen's retirement gave Schumacher an eight-point lead, meaning that a win in the next race would give him the title. The result also gave Ferrari the lead in the Constructors' Championship.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The penultimate round was in Japan, and Michael Schumacher beat Häkkinen to pole by 0.009 seconds. Coulthard was third and Barrichello fourth. The race started in overcast conditions, with rain looming. Häkkinen started off better than Schumacher and took the lead. Coulthard maintained third. The two title contenders, Häkkinen and Schumacher pulled away from the others at over a second a lap and were separated by 2–3 seconds. The first round of stops changed nothing. Then, some rain started spitting down at the track, and Schumacher started to close in. Schumacher's second pitstop was three laps after Häkkinen's, and although he was two seconds behind Häkkinen before the stops, he came out four seconds ahead. Schumacher won the race, and the championship, with Häkkinen and Coulthard completing the podium. Barrichello finished fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: The final round of the season was in Malaysia. Michael Schumacher took pole again, ahead of Häkkinen, Coulthard and a flu-ridden Barrichello. Schumacher had a poor start from pole, and immediately both McLarens were ahead of him. However, it became clear that Häkkinen had jumped the start and he received a penalty. He let Coulthard through, and held up the Ferraris until he went in for the penalty. Coulthard had a good lead, but wasted it by running wide at Turn three. He pitted before Michael Schumacher, and the time he lost by the mistake gave the lead to Schumacher. The two ran together for the rest of the race, with Barrichello unable to keep up. Michael Schumacher won again, ahead of Coulthard and Barrichello, and this ensured the Constructors' Championship for Ferrari. Häkkinen charged back to finish fourth.


title: 2000 Formula One World Championship

text: At the end of the season, Michael Schumacher was champion with 108 points, Häkkinen was second with 89, Coulthard third with 73, Barrichello fourth with 62, Ralf Schumacher fifth with 24, and Fisichella sixth with 18. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari won with 170 points, McLaren was second with 152, and Williams was third with 36.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: The Foucault pendulum or Foucault's pendulum is a simple device named after French physicist Léon Foucault, conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. A long and heavy pendulum suspended from the high roof above a circular area was monitored over an extended time period, showing that the plane of oscillation rotated.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: The pendulum was introduced in 1851 and was the first experiment to give simple, direct evidence of the Earth's rotation. Foucault pendulums today are popular displays in science museums and universities.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. A few weeks later, Foucault made his most famous pendulum when he suspended a brass-coated lead bob with a wire from the dome of the Panthéon, Paris. The proper period of the pendulum was approximately formula_1. Because the latitude of its location was formula_2, the plane of the pendulum's swing made a full circle in approximately formula_3, rotating clockwise approximately 11.3° per hour.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Focault explained his results in an 1851 paper entitled "Physical demonstration of the Earth's rotational movement by means of the pendulum", published in the "Weekly reports of the sessions of the Academy of Sciences". He wrote that:


title: Foucault pendulum

text: ...an oscillatory movement of the pendulum mass follows an arc of a circle whose plane is well known, and to which the inertia of matter ensures an unchanging position in space. If these oscillations continue for a certain time, the movement of the earth, which continues to rotate from west to east, will become sensitive in contrast to the immobility of the oscillation plane whose trace on the ground will seem animated by a movement consistent with the apparent movement of the celestial sphere; and if the oscillations could be perpetuated for twenty-four hours, the trace of their plane would then execute an entire revolution around the vertical projection of the point of suspension.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: The original bob used in 1851 at the Panthéon was moved in 1855 to the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in Paris. A second temporary installation was made for the 50th anniversary in 1902.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: During museum reconstruction in the 1990s, the original pendulum was temporarily displayed at the Panthéon (1995), but was later returned to the Musée des Arts et Métiers before it reopened in 2000. On April 6, 2010, the cable suspending the bob in the Musée des Arts et Métiers snapped, causing irreparable damage to the pendulum bob and to the marble flooring of the museum. The original, now damaged pendulum bob is displayed in a separate case adjacent to the current pendulum display.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: An exact copy of the original pendulum has been operating under the dome of the Panthéon, Paris since 1995.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: At either the Geographic North Pole or Geographic South Pole, the plane of oscillation of a pendulum remains fixed relative to the distant masses of the universe while Earth rotates underneath it, taking one sidereal day to complete a rotation. So, relative to Earth, the plane of oscillation of a pendulum at the North Pole – viewed from above – undergoes a full clockwise rotation during one day; a pendulum at the South Pole rotates counterclockwise.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: When a Foucault pendulum is suspended at the equator, the plane of oscillation remains fixed relative to Earth. At other latitudes, the plane of oscillation precesses relative to Earth, but more slowly than at the pole; the angular speed, (measured in clockwise degrees per sidereal day), is proportional to the sine of the latitude, :


title: Foucault pendulum

text: where latitudes north and south of the equator are defined as positive and negative, respectively. A "pendulum day" is the time needed for the plane of a freely suspended Foucault pendulum to complete an apparent rotation about the local vertical. This is one sidereal day divided by the sine of the latitude. For example, a Foucault pendulum at 30° south latitude, viewed from above by an earthbound observer, rotates counterclockwise 360° in two days.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Using enough wire length, the described circle can be wide enough that the tangential displacement along the measuring circle of between two oscillations can be visible by eye, rendering the Foucault pendulum a spectacular experiment: for example, the original Foucault pendulum in Panthéon moves circularly, with a 6-metre pendulum amplitude, by about 5 mm each period.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: A Foucault pendulum requires care to set up because imprecise construction can cause additional veering which masks the terrestrial effect. As observed by later Nobel laureate Heike Kamerlingh Onnes, who developed a fuller theory of the Foucault pendulum for his doctoral thesis (1879), geometrical imperfection of the system or elasticity of the support wire may cause an interference between two horizontal modes of oscillation, which caused Onnes' pendulum to go over from linear to elliptic oscillation in an hour. The initial launch of the pendulum is also critical; the traditional way to do this is to use a flame to burn through a thread which temporarily holds the bob in its starting position, thus avoiding unwanted sideways motion (see a ).


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Notably, veering of a pendulum was observed already in 1661 by Vincenzo Viviani, a disciple of Galileo, but there is no evidence that he connected the effect with the Earth's rotation; rather, he regarded it as a nuisance in his study that should be overcome with suspending the bob on two ropes instead of one.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Air resistance damps the oscillation, so some Foucault pendulums in museums incorporate an electromagnetic or other drive to keep the bob swinging; others are restarted regularly, sometimes with a launching ceremony as an added attraction. Besides air resistance (the use of a heavy symmetrical bob is to reduce friction forces, mainly air resistance by a symmetrical and aerodynamic bob) the other main engineering problem in creating a 1-meter Foucault pendulum nowadays is said to be ensuring there is no preferred direction of swing.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: In a near-inertial frame moving in tandem with the Earth, but not sharing the rotation of the Earth about its own axis, the suspension point of the pendulum traces out a circular path during one sidereal day.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: At the latitude of Paris, 48 degrees 51 minutes north, a full precession cycle takes just under 32 hours, so after one sidereal day, when the Earth is back in the same orientation as one sidereal day before, the oscillation plane has turned by just over 270 degrees. If the plane of swing was north–south at the outset, it is east–west one sidereal day later.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: This also implies that there has been exchange of momentum; the Earth and the pendulum bob have exchanged momentum. The Earth is so much more massive than the pendulum bob that the Earth's change of momentum is unnoticeable. Nonetheless, since the pendulum bob's plane of swing has shifted, the conservation laws imply that an exchange must have occurred.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Rather than tracking the change of momentum, the precession of the oscillation plane can efficiently be described as a case of parallel transport. For that, it can be demonstrated, by composing the infinitesimal rotations, that the precession rate is proportional to the projection of the angular velocity of Earth onto the normal direction to Earth, which implies that the trace of the plane of oscillation will undergo parallel transport. After 24 hours, the difference between initial and final orientations of the trace in the Earth frame is , which corresponds to the value given by the Gauss–Bonnet theorem. is also called the holonomy or geometric phase of the pendulum. When analyzing earthbound motions, the Earth frame is not an inertial frame, but rotates about the local vertical at an effective rate of radians per day. A simple method employing parallel transport within cones tangent to the Earth's surface can be used to describe the rotation angle of the swing plane of Foucault's pendulum.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: From the perspective of an Earth-bound coordinate system (the measuring circle and spectator are Earth-bounded, also if terrain reaction to Coriolis force is not perceived by spectator when he moves), using a rectangular coordinate system with its -axis pointing east and its -axis pointing north, the precession of the pendulum is due to the Coriolis force (other fictitious forces as gravity and centrifugal force have not direct precession component, Euler's force is low because Earth's rotation speed is nearly constant). Consider a planar pendulum with constant natural frequency in the small angle approximation. There are two forces acting on the pendulum bob: the restoring force provided by gravity and the wire, and the Coriolis force (the centrifugal force, opposed to the gravitational restoring force, can be neglected). The Coriolis force at latitude is horizontal in the small angle approximation and is given by


title: Foucault pendulum

text: where is the rotational frequency of Earth, is the component of the Coriolis force in the -direction and is the component of the Coriolis force in the -direction.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Many physical systems precess in a similar manner to a Foucault pendulum. As early as 1836, the Scottish mathematician Edward Sang contrived and explained the precession of a spinning top. In 1851, Charles Wheatstone described an apparatus that consists of a vibrating spring that is mounted on top of a disk so that it makes a fixed angle with the disk. The spring is struck so that it oscillates in a plane. When the disk is turned, the plane of oscillation changes just like the one of a Foucault pendulum at latitude .


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Similarly, consider a nonspinning, perfectly balanced bicycle wheel mounted on a disk so that its axis of rotation makes an angle with the disk. When the disk undergoes a full clockwise revolution, the bicycle wheel will not return to its original position, but will have undergone a net rotation of .


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Foucault-like precession is observed in a virtual system wherein a massless particle is constrained to remain on a rotating plane that is inclined with respect to the axis of rotation.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: Spin of a relativistic particle moving in a circular orbit precesses similar to the swing plane of Foucault pendulum. The relativistic velocity space in Minkowski spacetime can be treated as a sphere "S" in 4-dimensional Euclidean space with imaginary radius and imaginary timelike coordinate. Parallel transport of polarization vectors along such sphere gives rise to Thomas precession, which is analogous to the rotation of the swing plane of Foucault pendulum due to parallel transport along a sphere "S" in 3-dimensional Euclidean space.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: In physics, the evolution of such systems is determined by geometric phases. Mathematically they are understood through parallel transport.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: There are numerous Foucault pendulums at universities, science museums, and the like throughout the world. The United Nations General Assembly Building at the United Nations headquarters in New York City has one. The Oregon Convention Center pendulum is claimed to be the largest, its length is approximately , however, there are larger ones listed in the article, such as the one in Gamow Tower at the University of Colorado (39.3 m). There used to be much longer pendulums, such as the pendulum in Saint Isaac's Cathedral, Saint Petersburg, Russia.


title: Foucault pendulum

text: The experiment has also been carried out at the South Pole, where it was assumed that the rotation of the Earth would have maximum effect. A pendulum was installed in a six-story staircase of a new station under construction at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. It had a length of and the bob weighed . The location was ideal: no moving air could disturb the pendulum. The researchers confirmed about 24 hours as the rotation period of the plane of oscillation.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Dial M for Murder is a 1954 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, Anthony Dawson, and John Williams. Both the screenplay and the successful stage play on which it was based were written by English playwright Frederick Knott. The play premiered in 1952 on BBC Television, before being performed on stage in the same year in London's West End in June, and then New York's Broadway in October.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Originally intended to be shown in dual-strip polarized 3-D, the film played in most theatres in ordinary 2-D due to the loss of interest in the 3-D process (the projection of which was difficult and error-prone) by the time of its release. The film earned an estimated $2.7 million in North American box office sales in 1954.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Tony Wendice, a retired English tennis player, is married to wealthy socialite Margot, who has been having an affair with American crime-fiction writer Mark Halliday. Unbeknownst to them, Tony has discovered their affair and is planning to have Margot killed so he can inherit her fortune.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Tony is aware that Charles Swann, an old acquaintance from Cambridge University, has become a small-time con man with a criminal record. Tony invites Swann to his Maida Vale flat on a pretext, and tells him of Margot's affair. Tony also confides that six months previously, he stole Margot's handbag, which contained a love letter from Mark, and anonymously blackmailed her. After tricking Swann into leaving his fingerprints on the letter, Tony entraps him, threatening to turn him in as Margot's blackmailer unless he kills Margot. With the added inducement of £1,000 in cash, Swann agrees to the murder and Tony explains his plan. Tony and Mark will attend a party while Margot stays home alone. At a specific time when Margot is certain to be in bed, Swann will enter the flat using Margot's latchkey, which Tony will stash under the foyer carpet, and hide. Minutes later, Tony will telephone the flat from the party and Swann will kill Margot when she answers the call. Swann will then whistle over the phone to signal the job is done, leave signs of a burglary gone wrong, and replace the key under the foyer carpet when he departs.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The following night, Swann enters the flat and Tony calls as planned. When Margot comes to the phone, Swann tries to strangle her with his scarf, but she fatally stabs him with scissors. Upon hearing Margot plead for help instead of Swann's whistle, Tony advises her not to speak to anyone. He returns home, calls the police, sends Margot to bed, and transfers what he thinks is Margot's key from Swann's pocket into her handbag. He also attempts to frame Margot by planting Mark's letter on Swann and destroying Swann's scarf.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The next day Tony persuades Margot to hide the fact that he told her not to call the police. Chief Inspector Hubbard arrives and questions the Wendices and Margot makes several conflicting statements. When Hubbard says the evidence indicates that Swann entered through the front door, Tony claims that Swann must have been responsible for stealing Margot's handbag, and made a copy of her key. As Tony intends, Hubbard does not believe the story and arrests Margot after concluding that she killed Swann for blackmailing her. Margot is found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Months later, on the day before Margot's scheduled execution, Mark visits Tony, saying he has devised a story for him to tell the police to save Margot. Mark's "story" is very close to what actually happened: that Tony paid Swann to kill Margot. Hubbard arrives unexpectedly, and Mark hides in the bedroom. Hubbard asks Tony about large sums of cash he has been spending around town, tricks Tony into revealing that his latchkey is in his raincoat, and inquires about Tony's attaché case. Tony claims to have misplaced the case, but Mark, overhearing the conversation, finds it on the bed, full of banknotes. Deducing that the money was Tony's intended payoff to Swann, Mark confronts Tony and explains his theory to Hubbard. Tony "confesses" that the cash was Margot's blackmail payment to Swann, which he had concealed to protect her. Hubbard appears to accept Tony's explanation, and Mark leaves angrily. Hubbard discreetly swaps his own raincoat with Tony's. As soon as Tony leaves, Hubbard uses Tony's key to re-enter the flat, followed by Mark. Hubbard had already discovered that the key in Margot's handbag was Swann's own latchkey and deduced that Swann had put the Wendices' key back in its hiding-place after unlocking the door. Now, correctly suspecting Tony of having conspired with Swann, Hubbard had developed an elaborate ruse to trap him.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Plainclothes police officers bring Margot from prison to the flat. She tries unsuccessfully to unlock the door with the key in her handbag, then enters through the garden, proving to Hubbard that she is unaware of the hidden key and is therefore innocent. Hubbard has Margot's handbag returned to the police station, where Tony retrieves it after discovering that he has no key. The key from Margot's bag does not work, so he uses the hidden key to open the door, demonstrating his guilt and exonerating Margot. With his escape routes blocked by Hubbard and another policeman, Tony calmly makes himself a drink and congratulates Hubbard.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: After "I Confess" (1953), Hitchcock planned to film "The Bramble Bush", based on the 1948 novel by David Duncan, as a Transatlantic Pictures production, with partner Sidney Bernstein. However, there were problems with the script and budget, and Hitchcock and Bernstein decided to dissolve their partnership. Warner Bros. allowed Hitchcock to scrap the film, and begin production on "Dial M for Murder".


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Mark's name was changed for the film; in the original play, he was Max Halliday. Actors Dawson and Williams reprise their Broadway roles as Swann/Captain Lesgate and Inspector Hubbard, respectively.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is a signature occurrence in most of his films. In "Dial M for Murder", he can be seen thirteen minutes into the film, in a black-and-white reunion photograph, sitting at a banquet table among former students and faculty.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: "Dial M for Murder" was shot using Warner Bros.' own proprietary 3-D camera rig, the so-called All-Media Camera. After one preview performance on May 18 and four showings on the May 19, a Philadelphia theater manager frantically contacted the studio and said that people were staying away in droves. He asked for permission to drop the 3-D and show the film flat.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: "The Philadelphia Inquirer" reported on May 23 that the "first audiences proved to be a jury that could not only make up its mind, but could make it up in a hurry. In exhibitors' own terms, "DIAL M" literally died. And after just four performances on Wednesday, some long-distance telephoning to report complaints, the increasing skimpiness of customers—a good many of them making no bones of their dissatisfaction—permission was given to throw away the glasses and hastily switch to the 2-D version. Whereupon business at the Randolph took a turn for the better."


title: Dial M for Murder

text: "Dial M for Murder" marked the end of the brief flirtation with 3-D films of the early 1950s. Hitchcock said of 3-D: "It's a nine-day wonder, and I came in on the ninth day."


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The dual-strip system was used for the February 1980 revival of the film in 3D at the York Theater in San Francisco, California. This revival performed so well that Warner Bros. did a limited national re-release of the film in February 1982 using Chris Condon's single-strip StereoVision 3-D system. The re-release included a sold-out engagement at the Detroit Institute of Arts.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The film was shown in 3D in some UK cinemas during the summer of 2013 and in Italy at the beginning of fall of the same year.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: "This is a technical triumph that Hitchcock has achieved," wrote Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" in a favourable review. "It is one for which he needed good actors. He has them—and the best of the lot is John Williams, late of the stage play, who is the detective who solves the sinister ruse." "Variety" wrote: "There are a number of basic weaknesses in the set-up that keep the picture from being a good suspense show for any but the most gullible. Via the performances and several suspense tricks expected of Hitchcock, the weaknesses are glossed over to some extent but not enough to rate the film a cinch winner." "Harrison's Reports" wrote that the film "shapes up as no more than a mild entertainment, despite the expert direction of Hitchcock and the competent acting of the players. The chief weakness is that the action is slow, caused by the fact that the story unfolds almost entirely by dialogue."


title: Dial M for Murder

text: Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" called the film "completely choice," with Williams and Dawson "smooth as silk in reprising their stage roles," adding, "Hitch has a field day with his camera angles, darting our eyes now here, now there, doing tingling tricks with shadows and long longshots in quick contrast to fuzzed close-ups. It's the work of a master enjoying his script." John McCarten of "The New Yorker" wrote a generally positive review, writing that he wished the script would give Hitchcock "a chance to cut loose with one of those spectacular chases he used to specialise in," but finding that after a talky opening 30 minutes, "things speed up once the murder wheels are set in motion, and eventually the piece becomes grimly diverting." "The Monthly Film Bulletin" wrote that the film "offers the prolific Hitchcock little more than an opportunity to carpenter a neat piece of filmed theatre—an opportunity which perhaps satisfied the master a little more than it does us ... The characters are fitted to their situations, and hardly exist in themselves (nor are they enlivened by the rather drab performances of Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings); only John Williams' dry, sardonic police inspector has a touch of individuality."


title: Dial M for Murder

text: On the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a "Certified Fresh" rating of 89% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 7.30/10. The site's critical consensus reads: ""Dial M for Murder" may be slightly off-peak Hitchcock, but by any other standard, it's a sophisticated, chillingly sinister thriller -- and one that boasts an unforgettable performance from Grace Kelly to boot". In 2012, The Guardian called the film "a taut, acidly funny thriller."


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The film was listed by American Film Institute in 2001 in AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills (#48), and in 2008 in AFI's 10 Top 10 (#9 in Mysteries).


title: Dial M for Murder

text: As it is considered one of the classic examples of a stage thriller, it has been revived a number of times since, including a US TV film in 1981 with Angie Dickinson and Christopher Plummer. In 1958 the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) aired a television film in which Maurice Evans (as Tony), Williams and Dawson all repeated their roles from the original Broadway play. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) produced a two-hour color version in 1968 featuring Laurence Harvey as Tony, Diane Cilento as Margot and Hugh O'Brian as Max.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: "A Perfect Murder" is a 1998 remake directed by Andrew Davis in which the characters of Halliday and Swann are combined, with the husband (Michael Douglas) both hiring and coercing his wife's lover (played by Viggo Mortensen) into a scheme to kill her (Gwyneth Paltrow). However, the lover hatches a revenge plot against the husband. Things go disastrously wrong for both of them, bringing in the cold, smoothly dogged police inspector (David Suchet), whose role is much reduced, as it is Gwyneth Paltrow's character, the wife, who unravels much of the mystery.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The television series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" premiered in the United States the year after "Dial M for Murder" was released. The main character in an episode from the series's first season, "Portrait of Jocelyn", is named Mark Halliday. In the episode, Halliday's wife, Jocelyn, has disappeared several years earlier, and at the conclusion, it is revealed that he murdered her.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The film partially inspired a Hindi-language version in 1985, released as "Aitbaar", starring Raj Babbar, Dimple Kapadia and Suresh Oberoi. A Tamil-language adaptation, titled "Saavi", with Sathyaraj, Saritha, Jaishankar and Nizhalgal Ravi, was released in the same year. The film also inspired a Malayalam-language adaptation as "New Year" starring Jayaram, Urvashi and Suresh Gopi in 1989. Another Bollywood film, "Humraaz" (2002), starring Bobby Deol, Akshaye Khanna, and Amisha Patel, was inspired by "A Perfect Murder".


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The episode "The Fifth Stair" of the TV series "77 Sunset Strip" recreated "Dial M for Murder", with Richard Long portraying Tony Wendice.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The third episode of the sixth season of "Frasier" is titled "Dial M for Martin". The plot centres on the title character's father believing that his younger son is subconsciously trying to kill him when he is beset by a series of mishaps seemingly caused by Frasier's younger brother, Niles.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The season 1 finale of the TV series "Archer" is titled "Dial M for Mother" in reference to the film. In the episode, Sterling Archer is given a brain implant which makes him subconsciously want to kill his mother Malory.


title: Dial M for Murder

text: The New Vic Theatre staged a production of the play in its main house (in the round) in 2017. It was directed by Peter Leslie Wild and the cast featured William Ellis as Tony. The play received positive press reviews.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The Ferrari F8 (Type F142MFL) is a mid-engine sports car produced by the Italian automobile manufacturer Ferrari. The car is the replacement to the Ferrari 488, with exterior and performance changes. It was unveiled at the 2019 Geneva Motor Show.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The F8 Tributo uses the same engine from the 488 Pista, a 3.9 L twin-turbocharged V8 engine with a power output of at 8000 rpm and of torque at 3250 rpm, making it the most powerful V8-powered Ferrari produced to date. Specific intake plenums and manifolds with optimised fluid-dynamics improve the combustion efficiency of the engine, thanks to the reduction of the temperature of the air in the cylinder, which also helps boost power. The exhaust layout and the Inconel manifolds have been completely modified up to the terminals. The F8 Tributo also uses turbo rev sensors, developed in the 488 Challenge, to maximise the efficiency of the turbochargers based on the demand for power from the pedal. The transmission is a 7-speed dual clutch automatic unit with improved gear ratios.


title: Ferrari F8

text: Several new software features are installed on the F8 which are controlled via the manettino dial on the steering wheel. The car is equipped with Ferrari's latest Side Slip Angle Control traction- and stability-control program. Additionally, the Ferrari Dynamic Enhancer, an electronic program for managing drifts, can now be used in the Race drive mode. Claimed manufacturer performance for the F8 Tributo is in 2.9 seconds, in 7.6 seconds, with a top speed of . Ferrari also stated that the Tributo's downforce has been increased by 15 percent as compared to the 488 GTB. "Road & Track" tested a US-spec Ferrari F8 Tributo model and achieved an 11.3-second quarter-mile time with a trap speed, which equates to 0–100 km/h in the mid-3 range and 0–200 km/h in the low-10 range.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The front of the car is characterised by the S-Duct (originally featured on the 488 Pista) around which the entire front end of the car has been redesigned, with additional air intakes above the headlights. The front is completed by side aerodynamic intakes which are integrated into the shape of the bumper and feature two aerodynamic side splitters in black. The radiator packs are tilted towards the rear, using a flat undertray to channel the hot air and minimise the thermal interaction with the flows inside the wheel arch, derived from the 488 challenge. The car also features quad taillamps, a feature that was last seen in the V8 lineage on the F430. At the rear, it sports a louvered clear engine cover made from lightweight Lexan which pays homage to the F40 and a wrap-around rear spoiler inspired by the 308 GTB, with additional air intakes on both sides.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The interior has received updates as well: the dashboard, instrument housing, and door panels are new. The two-tone colour scheme seen on the 488 has also been replaced. An 8.5 inch passenger touchscreen display is also standard as a part of the HMI (Human Machine Interface). The dash now incorporates an aluminium sail panel supporting the central satellite navigation system and continuing into the dash itself.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The F8 Spider is an open-top variant of the F8 Tributo with a folding hardtop as seen on its predecessors. The top takes 14 seconds for operation and can be operated with speeds up to . The F8 Spider features large air intakes on its rear haunches, moved rearward compared to the ones in the 488 Spider for improved airflow to the engine.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The Spider's drivetrain is shared with the Tributo. The engine has a lighter crankshaft, flywheel, and connecting rods and weighs nearly less than the engine in the 488 Spider. Performance figures include acceleration from 0–100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.9 seconds and from 0–200 km/h (124 mph) in 8.2 seconds. Top speed is unchanged from the coupé at 340 km/h (211 mph). Dry weight of the Spider is . The boot capacity allows for of luggage space.


title: Ferrari F8

text: The SP48 Unica enhances a new unique design like its name in a mechanics derived from the F8 Tributo including its mid-mounted 710 bhp twin-turbo V8. The redesign of the bodywork features an angular front end and a bold, windowless rear with a wraparound light bar.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (chassis code W 198) is a two-seat sports car which was produced by Mercedes-Benz as a gullwinged coupe (1954–1957) and roadster (1957–1963). It was based on the company's 1952 racer, the W194, with mechanical direct fuel injection which boosted power almost 50 percent in its three-liter overhead camshaft straight-six engine. Capable of reaching a top speed of up to , it was a sports car racing champion and the fastest production car of its time.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Max Hoffman, Mercedes-Benz's United States importer at the time, inspired the 300 SL and saw an American market for such a car. The company introduced the 300 SL in February 1954 at the International Motor Sports Show in New York City (instead of Europe) to get it into US buyers' hands sooner.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: SL is the short form for "super-light" in German (super-leicht)Mercedes' first use of the designation, referring to the car's racing-bred light tubular-frame construction. The 300 SL was voted the "sports car of the century" in 1999.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The 300 SL traces its origin to a racing sports car, the Mercedes-Benz W194. For this purpose, Daimler-Benz decided to race in 1951 and built a sports car. As a result, Mercedes' largest engine was developed: the M186, shared by the 300 "Adenauer" saloon (W186) and the luxury 300 S two-seat tourer (W188).


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Racing successes in 1952 were somewhat surprising as the W194 engine was fitted only with carburetors, producing less than competing cars by Ferrari and Jaguar and the 300 SL road car introduced in 1954. Nevertheless, low weight and low aerodynamic drag made the W194 fast enough to be competitive in endurance races.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Mercedes-Benz developed a new version for the 1953 racing season by adding fuel injection and 16-inch wheels; the gearbox was installed on its rear axle. Its body was made of Elektron, a magnesium alloy, which reduced its weight by . Mercedes-Benz decided not to race this alloy car, choosing instead to begin participating in Formula One in 1954. Later versions revised the body to lower air resistance, and did not continue the transmission arrangement.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Mass production of the 300 SL was not initially planned. However, the idea of a toned-down Grand Prix car for affluent performance enthusiasts in the booming post-war American market was suggested by Max Hoffman at a 1953 directors' meeting in Stuttgart. Mercedes' new general director, Fritz Konecke, agreed to Hoffman's order for 1,000 cars; the 300 SL was introduced at the February 1954 New York International Auto Show instead of the Frankfurt or Geneva shows, where company models usually debuted. In addition, the production of a smaller roadster, the Mercedes-Benz 190 SL, was announced after Hoffman ordered another 1,000 of the roadsters. The 300 SL and the 190 SL premiered at the 1954 New York show; Mercedes-Benz experienced a positive visitor response to both, and production began at the Sindelfingen plant in August of that year.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The price for the 300 SL coupe in Germany was DM 29,000, and $6,820 in the US. The roadster was DM 32,500 in Germany, and $10,950 in the US – 10 percent more expensive than the coupe in Europe, and over 70 percent more in the US.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Mercedes-Benz did not announce what the abbreviation "SL" meant when the car was introduced; magazines and company officials have called it "Sport Leicht" and "Super Leicht" ("light"). It was called "Sport Leicht" on the company website until 2017, when "SL" was changed to "Super Leicht" after a chance finding in the corporate archives.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: A special 300 SLS (Super Light Special) version of the 300 SL roadster was created for the Mercedes-Benz US racing team to compete on the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) national circuit in 1957. After the 300 SL coupe dominated the D Production class en route to titles in 1955 and 1956, the rules were changed to make the class more competitive by enlarging the maximum engine size from three to 3.5 liters. Rather than radically modifying its engine size (on the cusp of releasing the company's new 300 SL roadster, replacing the coupe), Mercedes-Benz created two roadsters to campaign on the D Modified class SCAA circuit. They featured a solid cover over the passenger seat, a low-profile racing screen in place of a full-width and -height windscreen, a driver's seat roll bar, a custom cowl with engine air intake, and no front and rear bumpers. These and other modifications lowered vehicle weight from to . Engine output was increased , to . Team driver Paul O'Shea again won the title for the company.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The 300 SL has a tubular frame on a steel chassis, with a steel body attached to the frame. To reduce weight, its bonnet, doors, dashboard, and boot lid are aluminum. An additional could be eliminated with an expensive all-aluminum body, but only 29 were made. Depending on the rear axle ratio, fuel consumption was 17 liters per 100 km (14 miles per US gallon; 17 miles per imperial gallon).


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Three checkered-pattern seat fabrics were standard: grey and green, grey and blue, and cream and red. Most customers opted for leather upholstery, which became standard on the roadster. With upward-opening doors, the coupe has an unusually-high sill; entering and exiting the car is problematic. The steering wheel pivots on its hub 90 degrees away from the dashboard to facilitate entry.<ref name="ams 21/1955">"Mercedes-Benz 300 SL". Test in "Auto, Motor und Sport", Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart, Heft 21/1955, Reprint in "Motor Klassik", Spezial Nr. 3.</ref> Storage space for luggage is behind the seats in the coupe; the boot only holds a spare wheel and fuel tank. The roadster was available with two custom-fitted leather suitcases for the larger boot. The coupe's windows are fixed and roll down in the roadster.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The body consists mainly of sheet steel, with the bonnet, boot lid, dashboard, sill, and door skins made of aluminum. Silver-grey was the standard color; all others were options.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The objective of the overall design was to make the vehicle as streamlined as possible. The width of the tubular frame along the cockpit allowed the cabin roofline to be inset considerably on both sides, dramatically reducing the front area. The structure was also quite high along the midline, prohibiting the attachment of standard doors. The only option – already used on the W194 race car – which would allow passengers over its high, deep sill was a gullwing door.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Eyebrows are a stylistic feature. The front pair deflect road water from the windscreen, and the rear were added for visual symmetry. The eyebrows added style to an otherwise slab-sided body. According to Mercedes-Benz, they were aerodynamic additions that pushed air over the top of the car and kept the windows clean in bad weather.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The Mercedes-Benz M198 engine is a water-cooled overhead cam straight six. Like the racing Mercedes-Benz M194, the 300 SL borrowed the basic two-valves-per-cylinder M186 engine from the regular four-door 300 (W186 "Adenauer") luxury touring car introduced in 1951.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: It featured the M186's aluminum head: a 30-degree diagonal base, allowing larger intake and exhaust valves than a standard horizontal joint with the engine block. To improve performance, the M198 replaced the W194's triple two-barrel Solex carburetors with a Bosch mechanical fuel-injection system. This raised output on the 300 SL from SAE gross to SAE gross at 6,100 rpm. Compression was set at 8.55:1.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Another performance feature was dry sump lubrication, which ensured proper oil distribution in high-speed cornering and reduced engine height by eliminating a traditional oil pan. A more-powerful version of the M198, with a radical sports camshaft and 9.5:1 compression ratio, could be ordered free of additional charge for the coupe. The roadster had this engine only in its 1957 debut year. For the M198 engine to be installed in a low-profile car, it was tilted 50 degrees toward the driver's side. The result was aerodynamic efficiency and an enormous, sand-cast aluminum intake manifold as wide as the engine.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The engine was coupled by a single-disc dry clutch to a four-speed transmission with gear ratios of 3.34:1, 1.97:1, 1.39:1, and 1:1, and a reverse ratio of 2.73:1. The stock rear-axle ratio at the beginning of production was 1:3.42; at the 41st vehicle, it was changed to 1:3.64 for better acceleration. It allows a top speed of and acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 9.3 seconds. Faster acceleration was provided with ratios of 1:3.89 and 1:4.11. The lowest final-gear ratio, 1:3.25, delivered a top speed of up to and made the 300 SL the fastest production car of its time. City drivers found the tall first gear challenging. Clutch-pedal operation was initially cumbersome, remedied by an improved clutch-arm helper spring.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Unlike present-day electronic fuel-injection systems, the 300 SL's mechanical fuel pump would continue to inject gasoline into the engine during the interval between ignition shut-off and the engine's coming to a stop. This extra fuel washed away the oil film critical to an engine during start-up and led to oil dilution, excessive ring wear, and scouring of the cylinder walls. Exacerbating the problem was the engine's dry-sump lubrication system, with its large oil cooler and enormous oil capacity, which virtually guaranteed that the oil would not get hot enough on the short trips frequently taken by most car owners to flow properly. Owners might block off airflow through the oil cooler and stick rigidly to the appropriately low recommended oil-change interval. An auxiliary fuel pump provided additional fuel for extended high-speed operation (or cold starts), but overuse could also lead to oil dilution. From March 1963 to the end of production later that year, a light alloy crankcase was installed in 209 vehicles.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Like modern racing cars, the 300 SL has a tubular frame designed by Mercedes head engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut. A tubular frame provided high stability with low vehicle mass. Thin, straight chrome-molybdenum tubes were assembled as triangles, with the finished frame weighing . The tubes make a deep side panel, requiring gullwing doors. The coupe frame has two side rails, and the top tube is level with the driver's elbow. The center of gravity is almost exactly in the middle of the vehicle.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The chassis was a regular Mercedes-Benz W186 with a sportier tuning. Unlike many 1950s cars, recirculating ball steering was relatively precise, and the four-wheel independent suspension allowed for a reasonably-comfortable ride and markedly-better overall handling. The front suspension consisted of double wishbones, coil springs, and a stabilizing bar. The rear swing axle, jointed only at the differential (not at the wheels themselves), could be treacherous at high speeds or on bad roads due to extreme changes in camber. The coupe has a high-pivot swing axle, radius arms, and coil springs; the high-pivot swing axle was replaced with a low-pivot swing axle in the roadster.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The front wheels are hung on double, unequal-length wishbones with coil springs and hydraulic telescopic shock absorbers; a torsion-bar stabilizer was installed. The coupe's rear axle was a two-joint design, with one joint on each side of the differential at its centreline.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The roadster's wheels were larger than the coupe's. The wheels were steel bowl/aluminum rim rivet compound wheels. Rudge 5J × 15-inch rims were a valuable option. The tires were 6.50-15 inches on the coupe and 6.70–15 on the roadster.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The 300SL had the same self-cooled, turbo drum brakes as the Mercedes 300S. A brake booster was used to decrease pedal force by using negative pressure from the intake manifold. Brake shoes were wide. The front drum brakes were two-wheel brake cylinders/wheels, and the rear drum brakes were one-wheel brake cylinders/wheels. The handbrake was a mechanical parking brake that acted on the rear wheels. The roadster had the same drum brakes until March 1961, when Ø front and rear disc brakes were introduced.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: In mid-1956, sales had begun to fall, and the board decided to show a convertible version at the Geneva show in March and convert the factory to a roadster version in May 1957 to serve the California market.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The 300 SL Roadster, with conventional doors, was first exhibited at the Geneva Salon in May 1957. The production of an open 300 SL involved redesigning the cockpit with lower sills for improved access. The rear suspension also incorporated low-pivot swing axles.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The roadster weighs more than the coupe; with , the roadster has slightly more power. Its tubular frame was modified to create more space in the boot. The spare tire was placed under the boot floor and, combined with a smaller fuel tank, made room for custom-made fitted luggage. The lower door sill provides a more comfortable entry.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The rear axle was changed to a single-joint arrangement, with its pivot point located below the differential centreline. This improved handling (particularly in corners) and comfort. Head engineer Uhlenhaut wanted the new low pivot axle for the coupe but was voted down by the board of directors, which reminded him that 3,000 manufactured axle units remained at the factory and costs were already high for the car. An optional hardtop became available in September 1958.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Mercedes decided to return to international motorsport at the beginning of the 1950s, and Alfred Neubauer was again entrusted with the task. In 1951, the company built five V8 W165 cars and engines to enter the Grand Prix. Ferrari's V16 performed well at Silverstone, however, and Neubauer knew that the W165 could not win; Mercedes began planning a V12 W195. The FIA sporting commission changed the rules for 1954 in October 1951, and the W195s could not compete; the company began to develop a six-cylinder 300 SL for racing. Its doors originally extended onto the bottom of the side windows, and access through them required a removable steering wheel.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The 300 SL's first race was the 1952 Mille Miglia. The race was from Brescia to Rome and back, pitting Karl Kling's 300 SL against Giovanni Bracco's new 3-liter V-12 Ferrari. Bracco won by four minutes and 32 seconds, and Kling finished second. Driving a car with a less-powerful engine, Rudolf Caracciola placed fourth.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Two weeks after the Mille Miglia, the original four cars raced at Bern before the Grand Prix. Concerned that Le Mans officials would not accept the gullwing-door design, Daimler-Benz revised the door down into the side of the body. Rear-brake locking was a continuing problem for the 300 SL; Caracciola's coupe hit a tree head-on, and he did not race again. Kling, Hermann Lang and Fritz Riess finished first, second and third when the 4.1-liter Ferrari broke down at the start.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Three new cars were built for the 24 Hours of Le Mans race in June. The engines were detuned for the long race to 166 bhp, and the fuel-tank filler rose above the rear window. The team brought an experimental spare car with a rooftop air brake which folded flat until the driver activated it. The unusual brake design unnerved the other drivers. The brake was effective; at 100 mph it could exert a deceleration of up to 0.2 g, but it also weakened the supporting pylons. The cars used more tires than expected, and Kling and Hans Klenk were forced out of the race by a generator failure. Lang and Riess won the race with an average speed of , and Theo Helfrich and Helmut Niedermayr placed second.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The Nürburgring race on August 2 was held on a challenging track. The competition shifted to Jaguar and Alfa Romeo. Nürburgring required a light, powerful car; aerodynamics were less critical, so the top of the coupe was removed (creating a 300 SL roadster with the rear deck and the passenger's side covered by an aluminum cover). All four cars raced at Nürburgring in unsupercharged form after trials indicated no benefit with a supercharged engine, which was no faster than the standard 300 SL. The team concluded that the car's relatively-crude swing-axle rear suspension was already at its limit in transmitting power to the road, and the engine was less durable. Lang won the race, with Kling and Riess finishing second and third. This was the official end of the company's efforts with the 300 SL, it felt that it had done all it could with the six-cylinder racers and would focus on the Grand Prix.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: For a final outing, the company (pressured by the Daimler-Benz representative in Mexico City) sent Mexico two -ton trucks and 35 people to compete in the third Carrera Panamericana. Two 300 SL coupes and two roadsters were updated with right-side exhaust and new window molding. Since there was no three-liter class, the cylinder displacement was increased to 3.1 liters to provide 177 bhp. Continental did not have the time (or expertise) to make special tires for the event, so the company sent 300 tires of different types. Lang hit a dog, and Kling struck a buzzard in the early stages at a speed of . The 300 SLs did better later, overtaking the lead Ferrari driven by Bracco. Kling and Klenk finished first, ahead of Lang and Erwin Grupp. A 1-2-3 finish might have been the final result, but American John Fitch was disqualified for allowing a mechanic to touch his car on the next-to-last day.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The race team prepared a new version of the 300 SL for the 1953 season; the 300 SLK would be lighter, with a shorter wheelbase, larger wheels, fuel injection, and better brakes. After Mercedes prioritized its efforts on a new Grand Prix car, however, the 300 SLK was canceled.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Werner Engel won the 1955 European Rally Championship in a 300 SL. Stirling Moss won the overall title at the 1955 Mille Miglia in a 300 SLR racing car, and John Fitch won his class in a production 300 SL coupe. The marathon Liege-Rome-Liege rally was won in 1955 by Olivier Gendebien, and in 1956 by Willy Mairesse. A 300 SL won the Sports Car Club of America Class D championship from 1955 to 1957.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Although roadsters were made for touring, Daimler-Benz marketed its roadster by racing on American tracks. Since production began, the Sports Car Club of America could not admit the roadster as a standard model for the 1957 season; it would have to compete in the Class D sports-racing car class with other three-liter cars such as the Maserati 300S, Ferrari Monza, and Aston Martin DB3S. The O'Shea-Tilp team used a lightened roadster with drilled front coil-spring mounts, no fan, a welded sheet-aluminum inlet manifold, and twin exhaust-pipe outlets. The roadster (sometimes known as the SLS) won the 1957 Class D Sports championship with triple the points of its nearest competitor, Carroll Shelby's Maserati.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Horácio Macedo finished second in the 1960 Rali Vinho da Madeira. Former Gull Wing Group International president Bob Sirna set a Bonneville Speedway F/GT three-liter sports-car speed record of in a modified coupe in 2016.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Sales quintupled in the model's second year but dropped off over the next three years. Roadster sales were initially high before leveling off to about 200 a year. Initially, the model was distributed mainly by Max Hoffman and later on by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Wernher von Braun, Rob Walker, Juan Manuel Fangio, Juan Peron, B. J. Habibie, Tony Curtis, Pablo Picasso, Sophia Loren, Romy Schneider, Clark Gable, Glenn Ford, Briggs Cunningham, Luigi Chinetti, John von Neumann, Pierre Trudeau, Justin Trudeau, Paul Newman, Yul Brynner, Bernie Ecclestone, Ralph Lauren, Frank Lloyd Wright, Adrian Conan Doyle, King Abdullah II of Jordan and Natalie Wood have owned a 300 SL.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: A less-expensive, 1.9-liter roadster was introduced in 1955 as the 190 SL, followed by the 230 SL. Subsequent SL generations include the W113 (1963–1971) and the R129 (1989–2001). The SL has since evolved into a more autobahn-focused grand tourer due to its increased weight, especially with the later optional V12 engine. The last two generations of the SL are coupe convertibles.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: The , V8 Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG debuted in 2009 as the successor of the 300 SL Coupe. SLS AMG production finished at the end of 2014; it was replaced by the AMG GT, with traditional doors and a smaller, twin-turbo V8 engine. Mercedes-Benz 300 SL owners are supported by Gull Wing Group International, which began in 1961. The Wii U game "Mario Kart 8" and its Nintendo Switch port, "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe," include a 300 SL roadster.


title: Mercedes-Benz 300 SL

text: A red 300SL was featured in the 2022 film Uncharted, owned by villain Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas). The car ended up being driven out of an airplane into the ocean.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The economy of Israel is a developed free-market economy. The prosperity of Israel's advanced economy allows the country to have a sophisticated welfare state, a powerful modern military said to possess a nuclear-weapons capability, modern infrastructure rivaling many Western countries, and a high-technology sector competitively on par with Silicon Valley. Israel ranks 35th on the World Bank's ease of doing business index. It has the second-largest number of startup companies in the world after the United States, and the third-largest number of NASDAQ-listed companies after the U.S. and China. American companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and Apple built their first overseas research and development facilities in Israel. Other high-tech multi-national corporations, such as IBM, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Facebook and Motorola have opened R&D centers in the country.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The country's major economic sectors are high-technology and industrial manufacturing. The Israeli diamond industry is one of the world's centers for diamond cutting and polishing, amounting to 23.2% of all exports. As the country is relatively poor in natural resources, it consequently depends on imports of petroleum, raw materials, wheat, motor vehicles, uncut diamonds and production inputs. Nonetheless, the country's nearly total reliance on energy imports may change in the future as recent discoveries of natural gas reserves off its coast, and the Israeli solar energy industry has taken a leading role in Israel's energy sector.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel's quality higher education and the establishment of a highly motivated and educated populace is largely responsible for ushering in the country's high technology boom and rapid economic development by regional standards. The country has developed a strong educational infrastructure, and a high-quality incubation system for new cutting edge ideas to create value driven goods and services. These developments have allowed the country to create a high concentration of high-tech companies across the country's regions. These companies are financially backed by a strong venture capital industry. Its central high technology hub, the "Silicon Wadi", is considered second in importance only to its Californian counterpart. Numerous Israeli companies have been acquired by global corporations for their reliable and quality corporate personnel.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In its early decades, the Israeli economy was largely state-controlled and shaped by social democratic ideas. In the 1970s and 1980s, the economy underwent a series of free-market reforms and was gradually liberalized. In the past three decades, the economy has grown considerably, but GDP per capita has increased faster than the increase in wages. In September 2010, Israel was invited to join the OECD. Israel has also signed free trade agreements with the European Union, the United States, the European Free Trade Association, Turkey, Mexico, Canada, Ukraine, Jordan, and Egypt. On 18 December 2007, Israel became the first non-Latin-American country to sign a free trade agreement with the Mercosur trade bloc.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel is also a major tourist destination, especially for those of Jewish ancestry, with 4.55 million foreign tourists visiting it in 2019 (about 1 tourist per 2 Israelis).


title: Economy of Israel

text: The British Mandate for Palestine that came into effect in 1920 aimed at restricting land purchases by Jewish immigrants. For this reason, the Jewish population was initially more urban and had a higher share in industrial occupations. This particular development resulted economically in one of the few growth miracles of the region whereby the structure of firms was determined mainly by private entrepreneurs rather than by the government.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The first survey of the Dead Sea in 1911, by the Russian Jewish engineer Moshe Novomeysky, led to the establishment of Palestine Potash Ltd. in 1930, later renamed the Dead Sea Works. In 1923, Pinhas Rutenberg was granted an exclusive concession for the production and distribution of electric power. He founded the Palestine Electric Company, later the Israel Electric Corporation. Between 1920 and 1924, some of the countries largest factories were established, including the Shemen Oil Company, the Societe des Grand Moulins, the Palestine Silicate Company and the Palestine Salt Company.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In 1937, there were 86 spinning and weaving factories in the country, employing a workforce of 1,500. Capital and technical expertise were supplied by Jewish professionals from Europe. The Ata textile plant in Kiryat Ata, which went on to become an icon of the Israeli textile industry, was established in 1934. In 1939, the cornerstone was laid for one of the kibbutz industry's first factories: the Naaman brick factory, which supplied the growing need for construction materials.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The textile underwent rapid development during World War II, when supplies from Europe were cut off while local manufacturers were commissioned for army needs. By 1943, the number of factories had grown to 250, with a workforce of 5,630, and output increased tenfold.


title: Economy of Israel

text: After statehood, Israel faced a deep economic crisis. As well as having to recover from the devastating effects of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it also had to absorb hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees from Europe and almost a million from the Arab world. Israel was financially overwhelmed and faced a deep economic crisis, which led to a policy of austerity from 1949 to 1959. Unemployment was high, and foreign currency reserves were scarce.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In 1952, Israel and West Germany signed an agreement stipulating that West Germany was to pay Israel for the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust, and compensate for Jewish property stolen by the Nazis. Over the next 14 years, West Germany paid Israel 3 billion marks (equivalent to US$111.5bn in modern currency). The reparations became a decisive part of Israel's income, comprising as high as 87.5% of Israel's income in 1956. In 1950, the Israeli government launched Israel Bonds for American and Canadian Jews to buy. In 1951, the final results of the bonds program exceeded $52 million. Additionally, many American Jews made private donations to Israel, which in 1956 were thought to amount to $100 million a year. In 1957, bond sales amounted to 35% of Israel's special development budget. Later in the century, Israel became significantly reliant on economic aid from the United States, a country that also became Israel's most important source of political support internationally.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The proceeds from these sources were invested in industrial and agricultural development projects, which allowed Israel to become economically self-sufficient. Among the projects made possible by the aid was the Hadera power plant, the Dead Sea Works, the National Water Carrier, port development in Haifa, Ashdod, and Eilat, desalination plants, and national infrastructure projects.


title: Economy of Israel

text: After statehood, priority was given to establishing industries in areas slated for development, among them, Lachish, Ashkelon, the Negev and Galilee. The expansion of Israel's textile industry was a consequence of the development of cotton growing as a profitable agricultural branch. By the late 1960s, textiles were one of the largest industrial branches in Israel, second only to the foodstuff industry. Textiles constituted about 12% of industrial exports, becoming the second-largest export branch after polished diamonds. In the 1990s, cheap East Asian labor decreased the profitability of the sector. Much of the work was subcontracted to 400 Israeli Arab sewing shops. As these closed down, Israeli firms, among them Delta, Polgat, Argeman and Kitan, began doing their sewing work in Jordan and Egypt, usually under the QIZ arrangement. In the early 2000s, Israeli companies had 30 plants in Jordan. Israeli exports reached $370 million a year, supplying such retailers and designers as Marks & Spencer, The Gap, Victoria's Secret, Walmart, Sears, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, and Donna Karan.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In its first two decades of existence, Israel's strong commitment to development led to economic growth rates that exceeded 10% annually. Between 1950 and 1963, the expenditure among wage-earner's families rose 97% in real terms. Between 1955 and 1966, per capita consumption rose by 221%. The years after the 1973 Yom Kippur War were a lost decade economically, as growth stalled, inflation soared and government expenditures rose significantly. Also worthy of mention is the 1983 Bank stock crisis. By 1984, the economic situation became almost catastrophic with inflation reaching an annual rate close to 450% and projected to reach over 1000% by the end of the following year. However, the successful economic stabilization plan implemented in 1985 and the subsequent introduction of market-oriented structural reforms reinvigorated the economy and paved the way for its rapid growth in the 1990s and became a model for other countries facing similar economic crises.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Two developments have helped to transform Israel's economy since the beginning of the 1990s. The first is waves of Jewish immigration, predominantly from the countries of the former USSR, that has brought over one million new citizens to Israel. These new Soviet Jewish immigrants, many of them highly educated, had a wellspring of scientific and technical expertise to help spur Israel's burgeoning technology sector, now constitute some 15% of Israel's population. The second development benefiting the Israeli economy is the peace process that begun at the Madrid conference of October 1991, which led to the signing of accords and later to a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan (1994).


title: Economy of Israel

text: In the early 2000s, the Israeli economy went into a downturn due to the crashing of the global dot-com bubble which bankrupted many startups established during the height of the bubble. The Second Intifada, which cost Israel billions of dollars in security costs, and a decline in investment and tourism, sent unemployment in Israel to the double digits; growth in one quarter of 2000 was 10%. In 2002, the Israeli economy declined about 4% in one quarter. Afterward, Israel managed to create a remarkable recovery by opening up new markets to Israeli exporters farther afield, such as in the rapidly growing countries of East Asia. This was possible thanks to a rebound in the Israeli tech sector, spurred on by the gradual bottoming out of the dotcom crash and a growing increase in demand for computer software, which in turn was due to burgeoning rates of global internet usage at this time. The explosion in demand for security and defense products following 9/11 also allowed Israel to sell even more of its technologies abroad - a situation only made possible due to Israel’s prior investments in the technology sector in an effort to curb high levels of domestic unemployment.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In the 2000s, there was an influx of foreign investment in Israel from companies that formerly shunned the Israeli market. In 2006, foreign investment in Israel totalled $13 billion, according to the Manufacturers Association of Israel. The "Financial Times" said that "bombs drop, yet Israel's economy grows". Moreover, while Israel's total gross external debt is US$95 billion, or approximately 41.6% of GDP, since 2001 it has become a net lender nation in terms of net external debt (the total value of assets vs. liabilities in debt instruments owed abroad), which stood at a significant surplus of US$60 billion. The country also maintains a current account surplus in an amount equivalent to about 3% of its gross domestic product in 2010.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The Israeli economy withstood the late-2000s recession, registering positive GDP growth in 2009 and ending the decade with an unemployment rate lower than that of many western countries. There are several reasons behind this economic resilience, for example, the fact that the country is a net lender rather than a borrower nation and the government and the Bank of Israel's generally conservative macro-economic policies. Two policies, in particular, can be cited, one is the refusal of the government to succumb to pressure by the banks to appropriate large sums of public money to aid them early in the crisis, thus limiting their risky behavior. The second is the implementation of the recommendations of the Bach'ar commission in the early to mid-2000s which recommended decoupling the banks' depository- and Investment banking activities, contrary to the then-opposite trend, particularly in the United States, of easing such restrictions which had the effect of encouraging more risk-taking in the financial systems of those countries.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In May 2007, Israel was invited to open accession discussions with the OECD. In May 2010, the OECD voted unanimously to invite Israel to join, despite Palestinian objections. It became a full member on 7 September 2010. The OECD praised Israel's scientific and technological progress and described it as having "produced outstanding outcomes on a world scale."


title: Economy of Israel

text: Despite economic prosperity, the Israeli economy faces many challenges, some are short term and some are long term challenges. On the short term its inability to duplicate its success in the telecommunication industry into other growing industries hampers its economic outlooks. Its inability to foster large multinational companies in the last decade also calls into question its ability to employ large numbers of people in advanced industries. On the long term, Israel is facing challenges of high dependency of the growing number of Ultra-Orthodox Jews who have a low level of official labor force participation amongst men, and this situation could lead to a materially lower employment-to-population ratio and a higher dependency ratio in the future. The governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, stated that the growing poverty amongst the Ultra-Orthodox is hurting the Israeli economy. According to the data published by Ian Fursman, 60% of the poor households in Israel are of the Haredi Jews and the Israeli Arabs. Both groups together represent 25–28% of the Israeli population. Organizations such as The Kemach Foundation, Gvahim, Jerusalem Village and The Jerusalem Business Networking Forum are addressing these challenges with job placement services and networking events.


title: Economy of Israel

text: The following table shows the main economic indicators in 1980–2021 (with IMF staff estimates in 2022–2027). Inflation under 5% is in green.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In 2017, 2.4% of the country's GDP is derived from agriculture. Of a total labor force of 2.7 million, 2.6% are employed in agricultural production while 6.3% in services for agriculture. While Israel imports substantial quantities of grain (approximately 80% of local consumption), it is largely self-sufficient in other agricultural products and foodstuffs. For centuries, farmers of the region have grown varieties of citrus fruits, such as grapefruit, oranges and lemons. Citrus fruits are still Israel's major agricultural export. In addition, Israel is one of the world's leading greenhouse-food-exporting countries. Israel also produces and exports flowers and cotton. The country exports more than $1.3 billion worth of agricultural products every year, including farm produce as well as $1.2 billion worth of agricultural inputs and technology.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel has over 100 active venture capital funds operating throughout the country with US$10 billion under management. In 2004, international foreign funds from various nations around the world committed over 50 percent of the total dollars invested exemplifying the country's strong and sound reputation as an internationally sought after foreign investment by many countries. Israel's venture capital sector has rapidly developed from the early 1990s, and has about 70 active venture capital funds (VC), of which 14 international VCs have Israeli offices. Israel's thriving venture capital and business-incubator industry played an important role in financing the country's flourishing high-tech sector. In 2008, venture capital investment in Israel, rose 19 percent to $1.9 billion.


title: Economy of Israel

text: "Between 1991 and 2000, Israel's annual venture-capital outlays, nearly all private, rose nearly 60-fold, from $58 million to $3.3 billion; companies launched by Israeli venture funds rose from 100 to 800; and Israel's information-technology revenues rose from $1.6 billion to $12.5 billion. By 1999, Israel ranked second only to the United States in invested private-equity capital as a share of GDP. Israel led the world in the share of its growth attributable to high-tech ventures: 70 percent."


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel's thriving venture capital industry has played an important role in funding the country's booming high-technology sector, with hundreds of prosperous Israeli private equity and venture capital firms. The financial crisis of 2007–08 negatively affected the availability of venture capital locally. In 2009, there were 63 mergers and acquisitions in the Israeli market worth a total of $2.54 billion; 7% below 2008 levels ($2.74 billion), when 82 Israeli companies were merged or acquired, and 33% lower than 2007 proceeds ($3.79 billion) when 87 Israeli companies were merged or acquired. Numerous Israeli high tech companies have been acquired by global corporations for its reliable corporate management and quality personnel. In addition to venture capital funds, many of the world's leading investment banks, pension funds, and insurance companies have a strong presence in Israel committing their funds to financially back Israeli high-tech firms and benefit from its prosperous high tech sector. These institutional investors include Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse First Boston, Merrill Lynch, CalPERS, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, and AIG.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel also has a small but fast growing hedge fund industry. Within five years between 2007 and 2012, the number of active hedge funds doubled to 60. Israel-based hedge funds have registered an increase of 162% from 2006 to 2012, when they managed a total of $2 billion (₪8 billion) and employed about 300 people. The ever-growing hedge fund industry in Israel is also attracting a myriad of investors from around the world, particularly from the United States.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Science and technology in Israel is one of the country's most highly developed and industrialized sectors. The modern Israeli ecosystem of high technology is highly optimized making up a significant bulk of the Israeli economy. The percentage of Israelis engaged in scientific and technological inquiry, and the amount spent on research and development (R&D) concerning gross domestic product (GDP), is among the highest in the world, with 140 scientists and technicians per 10,000 employees. In comparison, the same is 85 per 10,000 in the United States and 83 per 10,000 in Japan. Israel ranks fourth in the world in scientific activity, as measured by the number of scientific publications per million citizens. Israel's percentage of the total number of scientific articles published worldwide is almost 10 times higher than its percentage of the world's population. The country is home to over 1,400 life science companies, including about 300 pharmaceutical companies, 600 medical device companies, 450 digital health companies, and 468 biotechnology companies. Israeli scientists, engineers, and technicians have contributed to the modern advancement of the natural sciences, agricultural sciences, computer sciences, electronics, genetics, medicine, optics, solar energy and various fields of engineering. The country has one of the world's technologically most literate populations. Israel has the second largest number of startup companies globally, behind only the United States, and remains one of the largest centers in the world for technology start-up enterprises. As of 2013, around 200 start-ups were being created annually in Israel. In 2019, there were nearly 7,000 active start-ups in the country. In 2021, there were 79 Israeli-founded tech unicorns, 32 of them headquartered in Israel. More than one-third of cybersecurity unicorns in the world were Israeli in 2021. Israel is also home to nearly 400 research and development centers owned by multinational companies, including giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Intel.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Israel is a major semiconductor design hub. It is home to numerous chip design centers owned by major multinational corporations, and is considered as having one of the most advanced chip design industries in the world. In 2021, a total of 37 multinational firms were operating in Israel in the semiconductor field.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In 1998, Tel Aviv was named by "Newsweek" as one of the ten technologically most influential cities in the world. In 2012, the city was also named one of the best places for high-tech startup companies, placed second behind its California counterpart.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In 2013, "The Boston Globe" ranked Tel Aviv as the second-best city for business start-ups, after Silicon Valley. In 2020, StartupBlink ranked Israel as having the third best startup ecosystem in the world, behind only the United States and United Kingdom.


title: Economy of Israel

text: As a result of the country's highly renowned and creative start-up culture, Israel is often referred to as the Start-Up Nation (adapted from the book Start-Up Nation, by Dan Senor and Saul Singer) and the "Silicon Valley of the Middle East". Programs that send people to Israel to explore the "Start-Up Nation" economy include TAVtech Ventures and TAMID Group. This success has been attributed by some to widespread service in the Israel Defense Forces and its development of talent which then fuels the high-tech industry upon discharge.


title: Economy of Israel

text: In recent years, the industry has faced a shortage of technology specialists; 15% of positions in the high technology sector of Israel were unfilled as of 2019. However, the largest number of unfilled positions (31%) are in software engineering specialities: DevOps, back-end, data science, machine learning and artificial intelligence. Therefore, salaries of specialists in the Israeli market also increased significantly. To solve this problem, IT companies look for filling the gaps abroad. Consequently, they employ about 25% of their entire workforce overseas. Most companies choose to hire employees from Ukraine (45%) and the United States (with 16%) are the second most popular offshoring destination country. In 2017, the Council for Higher Education in Israel launched a five-year program to increase the number of graduates from computer science and engineering programs by 40%.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Historically, Israel relied on external imports for meeting most of its energy needs, spending an amount equivalent to over 5% of its GDP per year in 2009 on imports of energy products. The transportation sector relies mainly on gasoline and diesel fuel, while the majority of electricity production is generated using imported coal. As of 2013, Israel was importing about 100 mln barrels of oil per year. The country possesses negligible reserves of crude oil but does have domestic natural gas resources which were discovered in more significant quantities starting in 2009, after many decades of previously unsuccessful exploration.


title: Economy of Israel

text: Until the early 2000s, natural gas use in Israel was minimal. In the late 1990s, the government of Israel decided to encourage the usage of natural gas because of environmental, cost, and resource diversification reasons. At the time however, there were no domestic sources of natural gas and the expectation was that gas would be supplied from overseas in the form of LNG and by a future pipeline from Egypt (which eventually became the Arish–Ashkelon pipeline). Plans were made for the Israel Electric Corporation to construct several natural gas-driven power plants, for erecting a national gas distribution grid, and for an LNG import terminal.