Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Eppur' si muove...


I spent more than 40 years in Paris but I had never been into the Panthéon. Last Saturday I did and discovered many beautiful things including this fantastic Foucault's Pendulum - named after the French physicist Léon Foucault - which was originally installed there in 1851 as an experiment to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. Stunning.

39 comments:

  1. J'ai besoin de l'aide avec mon français, Eric! Ça veut dire quoi "Eppur' si muove" ?

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  2. We had one of those in our school! But not that beautiful, of course!

    Is the pendulum swining around the cat?

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  3. LOL Buzzgirl. C'est un peu elliptique effectivement. En fait c’est de l’italien et ça veut dire « Et pourtant elle bouge ». C’est l’expression que l’on attribue à Galilée lorsqu’il a affirmé que la terre tournait…

    > Nebel, in fact there are many such pendulums like that throughout the world. It's a good way of showing the kids how the earth revolves.

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  4. We've got one of those pendulums in the Science Museum in London too... didn't know it was a Frenchman that invented it though. Thanks for the history lesson. :)

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  5. Eric, reply E-mail please

    kfaction@naver.com

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  6. Too funny! Of course I took a year of Italian in school. I loved it at the time but (obviously) can't even recognize it now :(

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  7. I did Coldnoodle, I did! And now I am off to bed!

    Duane. French people are good at inveting, they are lousy at marketing and selling!

    Buona note Buzzgirl, buona note... (That's Italian 101!)

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  8. Just wanted to say your photos are wonderful! I found this through Yahoo! Widgets. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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  9. Tiens donc, moi j'ai tjs appris la traduction "et pourtant, elle tourne". D'ailleurs, Wikipedia nous apprend que:

    >Galilée n'a jamais prononcé le fameux « Et pourtant elle tourne » (Eppur si muove) : cela lui aurait valu le bûcher.

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  10. What is "Eppur' si muove..." ? I might be stupid, but....

    wonderful photo

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  11. I hope that cat hasn't used up all of her lives yet! nice photo.

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  12. Isn't it funny how one can be a tourist in one's own city??

    Today I decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and go to the National Mall near the Capital Building (I live in Washington DC). I took photos, I strolled (for once I wasn't in a hurry) and just took in the beauty. Sure, I looked like the average tourist, but it was well worth it!

    Just thought I'd share!

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  13. Don't they have a very small one, too, at the CNAM? I could have sworn I saw a smaller version there, too.

    Glad to see the "real" one in action, though. A couple of years ago I tried to see it but it was out due to some kind of maintenance. Felt cheated!

    Thanks for showing it to us, Eric!

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  14. Hello Tomate Farcie. Yes your souvenirs are correct : there is one in the Musée des Arts et Métiers. See it on the french version of wikipedia : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendule_de_Foucault

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  15. nice to meet you with Blog.. I also have never visited the Seoul Tower (it is very famous place in Seoul) even though I'd been living 30 years in Seoul...

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  16. Very cool, Eric. Thanks for sharing it. This is something I will have to see when I finally get to Paris.

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  17. on peut le voir aussi au palais de la découverte
    http://www.palais-decouverte.fr/discip/physique/mecanique/index.htm
    Mais pas si beau !

    Amicalement

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  18. Eric, As always, your use of light is superb.

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  19. Beauty and science wrapped into one. I love it!

    And as long as we're damnding that you email people, Eric! (lol, just kidding!)

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  20. Flashback: umberto eco foucault´s pendulum...read about it but never seen it before, so thanks, Eric!
    Lovely bastet cat!

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  21. Science is beautiful - scary to me (because my mind is all but scientific). but truly beautiful.

    A lovely shot, Eric, and the Egyptian cat is truly the icing on the cake.

    I never went into the Pantheon until 1998, I think, and went back again last spring. A very cool place to visit (and yes, on a hot summer day, it is actually cool in there.)

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  22. salut éric,

    j'étais moi aussi dans le quartier du panthéon samedi dernier, et je commence à regretter de ne pas avoir poussé mes pas jusqu'à l'intérieur...

    du coup je suppose que tu as dû tomber sur la nuée de jonquilles de l'opération contre le cancer qui se trouvait sur la place du panthéon. j'essaier

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  23. salut éric,

    j'étais moi aussi dans le quartier du panthéon samedi dernier, et je commence à regretter de ne pas avoir poussé mes pas jusqu'à l'intérieur...

    du coup je suppose que tu as dû tomber sur la nuée de jonquilles de l'opération contre le cancer qui se trouvait sur la place du panthéon. j'essaierai de mettre un post là dessus ce soir.

    ... et comme je n'ai pas encore eu l'occasion jusqu'à aujourd'hui: bravo pour ton blog!

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  24. > goon : Honte à toi !!! l'opération "jonquilles contre le cancer" est sur le post d'il y a deux jours !!!!

    ;o)

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  25. Hi Eric, am watching TV news this very minute about the strike in Paris, geez, 3 million ppl on strike!

    Btw, this pic is like a book cover, very cool...

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  26. In Italy a famouse writer Umberto Eco has published a book named "Il pendolo di Foucault" .

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  27. Nasty GG!!! Good to see you! ;-)

    (and thank your brother for the info on the http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendule_de_Foucault , too! )

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  28. Very nice!!! 40 years and this is the first time there? Great shot!

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  29. great pictures, This is my first visit to the blog, I´ll be huge fan

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  30. I also like Malraux's cat! Perhaps even better.

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  31. Initialement, le pendule a été installé par Foucault au sein du Panthéon pour plusieurs raisons :
    - c'est un des points les plus hauts accessibles pour avoir le plus long fil possible (et donc mesurer un vrai déplacement du pendule)
    - il est à l'intérieur (ca évite les aléas du vent)...

    L'expérience montre la rotation de la Terre de la façon suivante : lorsqu'on lache le pendule sur l'axe Nord Sud (par exemple, ou sur tout autre axe noté à l'origine), on remarquera que la trajectoire du pendule lors de ses allers-retours sera modifiée.

    On en conclut la rotation de la Terre via une série d'équations physiques d'un niveau Maths Sup...

    Merci pour le blog, j'ai beau habiter Paris, c'est un plaisir quotidien !

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  32. Am I the only one surprised that Dan Brown didn't also weave the Foucault's pendulum at the Pantheon somehow into his vast conspiracy theory thriller based in Paris. . .Now what do you suppose he'd make of that cat!? :-)
    Wonderful capture of the pendulum's movement, Eric!
    -Kim

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  33. Le Panthéon - and Foucault's Pendulum - are two of Louis la Vache's favorite things in Paris.

    Very nice photo.

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  34. Son premier pendule, Foucault l'a installé, (il y a un siècle) dans l'escalier de son immeuble, au coin de la rue d'Assas et de la rue de Vaugirard.
    Si vous y allez, vous verrez, sur toute la hauteur de l'immeuble, un bas -relief, qui représente ce pendule.
    Le rez-de-chaussée est une banque, si je me souviens bien.

    His first pendulum was installed by Foucault, one century ago, in the stairs of his building, at the crossing of Assas and Vaugirard streets. There is a sculpture, on the wall, outside the building, showing the pendulum..

    =============

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