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175 Years Ago, He Set Out to Prove the Earth Was Spinning. His Experiment Took the World By Storm.
- Foucault's pendulum demonstrated Earth's rotation and sparked a lasting public science fad in the 1850s.
- The pendulum’s long wire allows its swing plane to rotate relative to the Earth’s surface, proving rotation.
- The craze spread across the U.S. with demonstrations in houses, hotels, universities, and churches.
- The pendulum became a proto-meme, easily reproducible and dramatic in its visible results.
- Foucault’s work extended beyond rotation, including his earlier mirrors experiments measuring the speed of light.
- Contemporary outlets documented the fad in newspapers, linking science to public culture.
- Cultural impact extended into museums and fiction, including Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum.
- The article places the pendulum fad within a broader history of science communication.
- Public fascination with science in that era extended into education and public exhibits.
- The piece connects the historical fad to broader questions about how people perceive the cosmos.
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