Fizeau–Foucault apparatus unit. At the time, Foucault was working at the Paris Observatory under Urbain le Verrier. It was le Verrier's belief, based on extensive celestial mechanics calculations, that the consensus value for the speed of light was perhaps 4% too high. Technical limitations prevented Foucault from separating mirrors R and M by more than about 20 meters. Despite this limited path length, Foucault was able to measure the displacement of the slit image (less than 1 mm) with considerable accuracy. In addition, unlike the case with Fizeau's experiment (which required gauging the rotation rate of an adjustable-speed toothed wheel), he could
Foucault pendulum vector diagrams determines when the Earth's rotation will be observable and only if the "z"-component is not balanced in the same direction on each side. The magnitude of the opposing component is proportional to how long it takes for one full turn of the Earth to be observed in relation to the plane of the pendulum. The length of time is a minimum of one day at the poles, increases from the pole to the equator, and is not visible at the equator (infinitely long). For any two points in the pendulum swing that are equidistant from the center of the swing