Leon Foucault Professions : Physicist Born : September 18, 1819 Died : February 11, 1868 Browse All Authors Top 4 quotes by Leon Foucault The phenomenon develops calmly, but it is invisible, unstoppable. One feels, one sees it born and grow steadily; and it is not in one's power to either hasten or slow it down. Leon Foucault unstoppable invisible born Science gains from it [the pendulum] more than one can expect. With its huge dimensions, the apparatus presents qualities that one would try in vain to communicate by constructing it on a small [scale], no matter how carefully. Already the regularity of its motion promises the most conclusive results. One collects numbers that, compared with the predictions of theory, permit one to appreciate how far the true pendulum approximates or differs from the abstract system called 'the simple pendulum'. Leon Foucault simple numbers science The observations, so numerous and so important, of the pendulum as object are especially relevant to the length of its oscillations. Those that I propose to make known to the [Paris] Academy [of Sciences] are principally addressed to the direction of the plane of its oscillation, which, moving gradually from east to west, provides evidence to the senses of the diurnal movement of the terrestrial globe. Leon Foucault paris science moving Any person, brought into the presence of this fact, stops for a few moments and remains pensive and silent; and then generally leaves, carrying with him forever a sharper, keener sense of our incessant motion through space. Leon Foucault person silent space moments Similar Authors Gabriel Lippmann physicist Burton Richter physicist Bruno Rossi physicist Bruce Maccabee physicist Brian Cox physicist Allan McLeod Cormack physicist All Authors
