Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (1819 - 1868) was a French physicist perhaps best known for the invention of the Foucault pendulum, a device demonstrating the effect of the Earth's rotation. He also made an early measurement of the speed of light, invented a way to check that a telescope mirror is correctly shaped, discovered eddy currents, and although he didn't invent it, is credited with naming the gyroscope.

The Foucault crater on the Moon is named after him.

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