Léon Foucault Catholicism that he previously abandoned. Foucault died of what was probably a rapidly developing case of multiple sclerosis on 11 February 1868 in Paris and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery. The asteroid 5668 Foucault was named for him. His is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. Collected Works: Léon Foucault Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (; 18 September 1819 – 11 February 1868) was a French physicist best known for his demonstration of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation. He also made an early measurement of the speed of light,
Foucault pendulum vector diagrams deduce that the time to observe a full rotation of the Earth increased by the inverse of the sine of the latitude. formula_7 = formula_8 = formula_9 The Pendulum Sine Law also defines that the ratio of the observed Earth's rotation time at two separate latitudes in relation to a pendulum swing is equal to the inverse ratio of the sine of the two latitudes. formula_10 = formula_11 = formula_12 The sine of the latitude also indicates the degree of alignment of the pendulum central axis to the Earth's axis of rotation. At the poles the pendulum axis is parallel