If you’ve yet Googled today, you may have noticed a lovely homage to Léon Foucault, the famous French physicist best known for inventing the Foucault pendulum (that ever-popular swingy thing at HMNS).
The Foucault Pendulum has long been one of the most memorable areas of the Museum, even if some people (this girl) lack the patience to actually watch the pendulum kick over a peg.
When a peg does go over, there are inevitable cheers. As the pendulum swings, it moves clockwise with the Earth’s rotation, knocking over one peg approximately every 15 minutes. Although the pendulum appears to be traveling around the circle, it’s actually the earth that moves, making this exhibit a perfect visualization of the earth’s rotation.
(Foucault himself said it a little less simply, like this: T = 24/sin q where T equals the amount of time to make one complete revolution and q is the latitude of the pendulum.)
We scoured the interwebs (as we are wont to do) to gather some of our favorite photos of patrons standing enrapt around the pendulum.
Have your own photos or memories to share? Hit us up on social media!
