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biography
| name: |
Foucault, (Jean Bernard) Léon
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pronunciation:
[fookoh]
| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1819–68)
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| biography:
| Physicist, born in Paris, France. He began by studying medicine, but turned to physics. He determined the velocity of light, and showed that light travels more slowly in water than in air (1850). He invented the gyroscope (1852), and improved the mirrors of reflecting telescopes (1858). In 1851 he demonstrated the rotation of the Earth by using a 67 m/220 ft pendulum hung in the dome of the Panthéon, Paris. |
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