Leon Foucault
By Daniel Kahill
Leon Faocault
Foucault was born on September 18, 1819 in Paris, France and died on February 11, 1868. Today would be his 194th birth day.
The Foucault Pendulum can be used to keep time, it can measure the acceleration due to gravity and it proves that the earth spins. He studied medicine, but soon switched to Physical Science at the Paris Observatory. Foucault's first experiment was in his cellar. The wire was 6 and a half feet long. The bob weighed 11 pounds. In his second experiment was in the Paris Observatory, this time the wire was 36 feet long. The pendulum moved 270 degrees in 24 hours, this proved the earth does rotate. In 1852 he created the Gyroscope.
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Foucault.html
http://www.calacademy.org/products/pendulum/index.html