# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/leon-foucault
# Generated: 2026-08-31T14:41:07.952Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/leon-foucault"
name: "Léon Foucault"
slug: "leon-foucault"
description: "He hung a heavy pendulum from a cathedral dome and let it swing for hours. As it traced a slow circle in the sand, the crowd could finally see what had always been invisible: the Earth turning beneath their feet."
tagline: "French physicist (1819–1868)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Foucault_portre_crop.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "France"
  isoCode: "FR"
category:
  name: "Scientists"
  slug: "scientists"
profileType:
  name: "Scientist"
  slug: "scientist"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1819-09-18"
deathDate: "1868-02-11"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           63.31
  momentum:             15.1614380581635
  historical:           24.3195
  currentAttention:     17.14285714285714
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 214
tags:
  - name: "Scientists"
    slug: "scientists"
  - name: "Scientist"
    slug: "scientist"
  - name: "Physics"
    slug: "physics"
  - name: "Astronomy"
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  - name: "France"
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  - name: "Europe"
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  - name: "19th Century"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Jean Bernard Léon Foucault was born in Paris on 18 September 1819 and trained as a physicist at a time when the planet's rotation was still a matter of abstract theory. In 1851 he suspended his pendulum — first in his cellar, then publicly under the Panthéon's dome — and gave the world its first direct proof that the ground was moving. He went on to measure the speed of light with unprecedented accuracy, discovered eddy currents in conductors, and coined the term "gyroscope" for the spinning instrument that would later steer ships and spacecraft. He died in Paris on 11 February 1868, forty-eight years old, leaving behind the rare gift of making rotation — something everyone experiences but no one sees — suddenly, unmistakably visible.