Google is celebrating renowned French physicist Léon Foucault 194th birthday with an interactive Google Doodle.
Google is celebrating noted French physicist Léon Foucault’s 194th birthday with an doodle on the home page. The doodle depicts Foucault Pendulum, invented by the physicist to demonstrate the effect of Earth’s rotation. The doodle features two toggles that show time and the position on the earth. There are different combinations that make the pendulum knock down pins in different positions.
Foucault was born in Paris in 1819 and initially studied medicine which he abandoned due to a fear a blood. Later he went to study physics and worked with Alfred Donne and Hippolyte Fizeau. He conducted an experiment in 1850 known as the Foucault–Fizeau experiment to measure the speed of light.
Focualt’s is famous for the Foucault Pendulum that he suspended in 1851 from the dome of the Pantheon in Paris to depict Earth’s rotation. The pendulum weighed 28 Kgs and had a brass-coated lead bob with a 67-metre long wire. The pendulum swing rotated clockwise at 11° per hour and made a full circle in every 32.7 hours.
Foucault died on February 11, 1868 due to multiple sclerosis. He is one the seventy two scientists, mathematicians whose name is inscribed on the Eiffel tower to recognize their contributions.
Google had recently celebrated French composer Claude Debussy’s 151st birth anniversary with an animated doodle on 22nd Aug. The animated Google Doodle highlights a river-side scene in the moonlight with Debussy’s ‘Claire de lune’ music playing in the background. The doodle shows a moonlight riverside scene with a star studded sky, windmill, balloons, cars and flickering street lights. The scene ends with two people meeting under a red umbrella in the rain and is one of the most romantic doodles by Google.
Léon Foucault Google Doodle