Léon Foucault
Chelsea Danner
Who is Léon Foucault?
Léon Foucault was a French physicist, born on September 18, 1819 in Paris France. Léon Foucault originally studied medicine before he jumped into physical science instead, and showed his demonstration of the pendulum about repetitive motion of the earth in 1851.
What is the Foucoult Pendulum?
The Foucault pendulum is a large pendulum that can swing in any direction. The Earth rotates beneath it as it swings back and forth, so its swing rotates in relation to the earth's surface. It was significant because it provided the first laboratory demonstration that the earth spins on its axis. A Foucault pendulum always rotates clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.The closer the pendulum is to the equator, the slower it rotates.
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