Skip to content
Léon Foucault

File:Foucault_portre_crop.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ187966· pop 79· linked from 191 articles

Léon Foucault

Sign in to save

Also known as John Bernard Foucault

French physicist (1819–1868)

AI overview

Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was a French physicist in the 19th century best known for experiments demonstrating the rotation of the Earth, most famously through a swinging pendulum (the Foucault pendulum). His work provided crucial evidence for understanding planetary motion and made fundamental contributions to the study of light and optics.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

Instance of
human
Given name
Jean
Gender
male
Citizenship
France
Place of birth
Paris
Place of death
Paris
Occupation
astronomer
Languages spoken
French
Field of work
optics
Image
Foucault portre crop.jpg
Residence
France
Show 17 more facts
Commons category
Léon Foucault
place of burial
Montmartre Cemetery
date of death
1868-02-11
date of birth
1819-09-18
Commons gallery
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault
cause of death
multiple sclerosis
manner of death
mercury poisoning
birth name
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault
name in native language
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault
writing language
French
ethnic group
French
start of work period
1839-01-01
end of work period
1868-01-01
on focus list of Wikimedia project
Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
maintained by WikiProject
WikiProject Mathematics
has works in the collection
J. Paul Getty Museum
Sources (6)

via Wikidata · CC0

~7 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Jean Bernard Léon Foucault ( UK: /ʒɒ̃ ˈbɛərnɑːr ˌleɪɒ̃ ˈfuːkoʊ/, US: /ˌʒɒ̃ bɛərˈnɑːr leɪˌɒ̃ fuːˈkoʊ/; French: [ʒɑ̃ bɛʁnaʁ leɔ̃ fuko]; 18 September 1819 – 11 February 1868) was a French physicist who invented 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

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Léon Foucault” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (3)