London, Sept. 18 (ANI): Google's latest interactive doodle marks the 194th birthday of French physicist Foucault who developed a device (pendulum)in 1851 to confirm that the earth rotated and allowed users to manipulate the winging bob according to where on earth they happen to be.
Foucault was born on September 18, 1819 and originally studied medicine, before beginning his career as a physicist and assisting and collaborating with Alfred Donne and Hippolyte Fizeau.
According to the Independent, in 1850 Foucault conducted a ground-breaking experiment that was viewed as 'driving the last nail in the coffin' of Newton's corpuscle theory of light when it proved light travels more slowly through water than through air.
He is known to be the developer of 'Foucault currents', 'Foucault polarizer', 'Foucault knife-edge test' which is still used in amateur telescopes.
Foucault died of multiple sclerosis on February 11, 1868 at the age of 48 after being made a member of many of the top scientific societies in Europe.
The report added that he was buried in the Cimetiere de Montmartre, with his name among those of seventy-two French scientists, engineers, and mathematicians engraved on the Eiffel Tower and the asteroid 5668 Foucault is also named after him. (ANI)
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