Pendulum: Leon Foucault and the Triumph of Science

Amir D. Aczel

I picked up this book on Foucault written by Aczel because of how much I enjoyed Aczel's Fermat's Last Theorem (which will make my Top Ten this year). I have a fascination with science mostly because I don't understand much of it and I have found Aczel to be a capable writer for walking me through not only scientific discoveries in layman's terms but also the history of the time and the biography of those involved, with the ease of a novelist. He tells a story and since I like and relate to stories it is an enjoyable way to learn. This book is an interesting accounting of how Foucault, a little-educated, self-made scientist in 1800's France, proved that the earth rotated. It also covers the tug-of-war between religion and science in those times. +