ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Léon Foucault

Léon Foucault was a man who lived a long time ago and was really interested in science. He was especially interested in something called physics, which is all about how things move and why they move the way they do.

One of the things that Léon Foucault is very famous for is his invention of something called the pendulum. Do you know what a pendulum is? It's a weight attached to a string or a rope that swings back and forth like a clock. Léon Foucault made a huge pendulum that was so big that it could swing for a really long time without stopping.

By watching the pendulum swing back and forth, Léon Foucault discovered something really cool about the Earth. He realized that the Earth is actually spinning! Even though we don't feel the Earth moving, it's actually spinning around really fast like a top. Léon Foucault's pendulum proved that the Earth is always moving, even if we can't see or feel it.

Léon Foucault also invented other cool things, like a device that could measure the speed of light and a way to make lenses for telescopes. He was really smart and did lots of important work in the field of physics.