Foucault, Jean Bernard Léon (1819–1868)
French physicist and physician who was the first to show how a pendulum
can track Earth's rotation (see Foucault
pendulum). He also invented the gyroscope
(1852), showed that the speed of light
is less in water than in air (1850), and improved the mirrors of reflecting
telescopes. More important even than his perfection of the silver-on-glass
process was his development of a simple technique, now known as the Foucault
knife-edge test, for determining the exact figure of a mirror. With
Armand Fizeau, he took the first clear photograph
of the Sun. He also noted the occurrence of
eddy currents which became known as
Foucault currents.
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