Google Doodle Features Léon Foucault Interactive Pendulum
Léon Foucault would have been 194 years old on Wednesday, Sept 18. In celebration, Google Doodle features an interactive Foucault pendulum.
The Sept 18 Google Doodle showed two important aspects of Foucault's pendulum: how the earth moves under the pendulum and how the speed of the pendulum's apparent movement changes depending on the location where the experiment is held. If the experiment is held in a location farther from the equator, the pendulum will move faster around a circle. If the location where the experiment is held is closer to the equator, the pendulum will move slower.
Léon Foucault was a 19th century physicist who was popularly known for his making of the Foucault Pendulum.
Foucault Pendulum was first shown to the public in 1851 in the Meridian of the Paris Observatory. It was the very first creation, demonstrating the Earth's rotation in a very recognisable way.
Foucault Pendulum was the very first pendulum to show Earth's rotation without involving celestial observations. Hence, it acquired curiosity and created a "pendulum mania" across Europe and the United Sates.
To get a hands-on experience with the Foucault Pendulum, visit Google Doodle Léon Foucault Pendulum.
Google Doodle will automatically trace where your current location is. But you can experiment with the time and day and different locations by moving the slider above the globe icon.
It was in the year 2000 when Google started doing doodles for its homepage. Over the years, Google had created over 1,000 doodles for its homepages around the world.
A Google Doodle team dubbed as "Googlers" meet regularly to brainstorm for a concept and events deserving of a Google Doodle celebration. All concepts for the actual doodle graphics were smorgasbord of ideas from members of the team and Google users themselves. From the concepts created through the brainstorming process, illustrators or the "doodlers" and engineers create the actual graphics that users see in Google's homepage.
The idea behind the Google Doodle is to celebrate events that speak of Google's personality and passion for innovation.
Google welcomes ideas to all interested users who would like to contribute to Google Doodle's next doodle. Anyone can send in their suggestion at proposals@google.com.
