Transcript Leon Foucault - WordPress.com

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Done by: Sabrina, Andrea, and Tianyi. 2R3
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* Leon Foucault was born on 18th September 1819 and died on 11th
February 1868 at the age of 48. He was a French physicist who
was best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a
device that shows the effect of the Earth’s rotation.
* Foucault was born in Paris and received
education at home, where he studied
medicine. He had a fear for blood, therefore
he decided to study physics.
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* He investigated the intensity of the light of the sun, as compared
with that of carbon in the arc lamp, and of lime in the flame of
the oxyhydrogen blowpipe.
* In 1850, he did an experiment using the Fizau-Foucalt apparatus
to measure the speed of light. It is now known as the Foucault–
Fizeau experiment, and was viewed as "driving the last nail in the
coffin" of Newton's corpuscle theory of light when it showed that
light travels more slowly through water than through air.
* He also discovered that light rays differ greatly in lengths of path
and on the chromatic polarizations of light.
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Diagram of a variant of Foucault's speed of
light experiment where a modern laser is
the source of light.
* He also invented the Foucault pendulum,
a device demonstrating the effect of the
Earth's rotation.
* In 1862, he, together with Charles
Wheatstone, determined the speed of
light to be 298,000 km/s
* He showed how the sun could be viewed
without injuring the eye by excess of light
* He made an early measurement of the
speed of light using a laboratory-sized
apparatus consisting of rotating and fixed
mirrors.
* He set up an enormous pendulum in the
Panthéon in Paris. The slow clockwise
veering of the swing-plane of the bob
demonstrated that the Earth was slowly
turning anticlockwise below
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* He specially made a deep research on the speed of light. In the
past, there were no advanced technology to help him with his
research, so that means he had to do it himself hands on. His
determination strives us to do better in our studies and have
high hopes for our results. Knowing that Leon Foucault did not
have textbooks like us, we should be able to do better than him
considering the environment and conditions we have now. In
addition, his perseverance and confidence led to his success and
we should follow his values to be as successful as him.
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After researching on Leon Foucault and his achievements
and how he managed to discover information on light, we
feel that he has a strong strive to achieve which led to his
success. We learnt that in order to achieve success we
have to work hard and persevere.
At first when we read about his achievements, we found it
difficult to understand the scientific terms and its
meaning. Due to the fact that we didn’t understand, we
tried researching for the definition and had a better
understanding. Although it doesn’t concern our exams and
tests, it improves our general knowledge.