Summary
In 1851, struggling, self-taught physicist Lǒn Foucault performed a dramatic demonstration inside the Panthǒn in Paris. By tracking a pendulum's path as it swung repeatedly across the interior of the large ceremonial hall, Foucault offered the first definitive proof -- before an audience that comp... Full description
- A stunning discovery in the cellar
- Ancient logic: Bible and inquisition
- Failed experiments with falling bodies
- A science "irregular" in the age of the engineer
- The meridian of Paris
- "Come see the earth turn"
- Mathematical Bedlam
- A new Bonaparte
- The force of Coriolis
- The Panthéon
- The Gyroscope
- The Coup d'État and the second empire
- An unemployed genius
- The observatory physicist
- Final glory
- A premature end
- The defeat at Sedan
- Aftermath.