Leon Foucault, Pendulum Experiment, 1851

Leon Foucault, Pendulum Experiment, 1851

Leon Foucault's pendulum experiment in the Pantheon, Paris, in 1851. The Foucault pendulum is a simple device named after Leon Foucault and conceived as an experiment to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. The pendulum was introduced in 1851 and was the first experiment to give simple, direct evidence of the earth's rotation. Jean Bernard Leon Foucault (1819-1868) was a French physicist. After an education received chiefly at home, he studied medicine, which he abandoned in favour of physics due to a blood phobia. He is best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation by showing the rotation of the plane of oscillation of a long and heavy pendulum suspended from the roof of the Pantheon, Paris. The experiment caused a sensation in both the learned and popular worlds, and Foucault pendulums were suspended in major cities across Europe and America and attracted crowds.

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4950 x 2736 px | 38.7 MB

41.9 x 23.2 cm | 16.5 x 9.1 in (300 dpi)