Humans Are Fascinated By The Uncontrollable Passage Of Time Stock Photo

The rotation of the Earth is demonstrated with a heavy brass pendulum. The Foucault Pendulum, named for the French physicist Jean Foucault who first used it in 1851 to demonstrate the rotation of the earth using laboratory equipment rather than astronomical observations. Foucault's original pendulum in Paris rotated clockwise with a period of about 32 hours per complete rotation.