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Léon Foucault: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As Jean Foucault • Jean-Bernard-Léon Foucault
Born September 18, 1819 • Paris • France
Died February 11, 1868 (aged 48) • Paris • France
Awards And Honors Copley Medal (1855)
Subjects Of Study Earth • Foucault pendulum • rotation • speed of light

Photos

Léon Foucault
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Kelvin, William Thomson, Baron
William Thomson, Baron Kelvin
Scottish engineer, mathematician, and physicist
James Bradley
James Bradley
English astronomer
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André-Louis Danjon
French astronomer
Nicolaus Copernicus
Nicolaus Copernicus
Polish astronomer
Moon, Earth, and Sun diagrammed in Aristarchus's On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon
Aristarchus of Samos
Greek astronomer
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John Joly
Irish geologist
helium
Heinrich Kayser
German physicist
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Roland, baron von Eötvös
Hungarian scientist
Bougainville, engraving by Émile Lassalle after Maurin
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville
French navigator
Ferdinand Magellan
Ferdinand Magellan
Portuguese explorer
Bertrand Piccard, 1999.
Bertrand Piccard
Swiss aviator
Diagram illustrating Eratosthenes' method for calculating Earth's circumference, showing the angle of sunlight at Syene and Alexandria, camels traveling between the two cities, and rays from the Sun striking Earth's surface at different angles.
Eratosthenes
Greek scientist
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Robert Fitzroy
British scientist
Brian Jones, 1999.
Brian Jones
British aviator
Sir Joseph Banks, engraving by Ridley, 1802
Sir Joseph Banks
British naturalist
Baron Anson, detail of an oil painting by an unknown artist, c. 1745–46; in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Eng.
George Anson, Baron Anson
British admiral
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Otto von Kotzebue
Russian explorer
Eckener, 1931
Hugo Eckener
German aeronautical engineer
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Joshua Slocum
Canadian seaman
Admiral John Byron
John Byron
British admiral

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