Description: |
On February 3, 1851,a 32-year-old Frenchman--who'd dropped out of medical school and dabbled in photography--definitively demonstrated that the earth rotated, surprising the Parisian scientific establishment. Acting on a hunch, Leon Foucalt had determined that he could use a pendulum to illustrate the effect of the Earth's movement. He called together agroup of scientists, enticing them with a note declaring, "You are invited to see the Earth turn." Foucalt hung a pendulum from the ceiling of the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory. As it swept through the air, it traced a pattern that effectively proved the world was spinning about an axis. [Source: The Smithsonian]
|
|