Wiki léon foucault biography

French physicist (1819–1868)

For the comic book character Jeanne Foucault, see Finesse (character).

Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (, ; French:[ʒɑ̃bɛʁnaʁleɔ̃fuko]; 18 September 1819 – 11 February 1868) was a French physicist best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of Earth's rotation.

He also made an early measurement of the speed of light, discovered eddy currents, and is credited with naming the gyroscope.

Early years

The son of a publisher, Foucault was born in Paris on 18 September 1819.

After an education received chiefly at home, he studied medicine, which he abandoned in favour of physics due to a blood phobia.^[1] He first directed his attention to the improvement of Louis Daguerre's photographic processes.

For three years he was experimental assistant to Alfred Donné (1801–1878) in his course of lectures on microscopic anatomy.^[2]

With Hippolyte Fizeau he carried out a ser