Seconds pendulum

Seconds pendulum

A seconds pendulum is a pendulum whose period is precisely two seconds, one second for a swing forward and one second for a swing back.

At standard gravity its length is 0.994 m (39.1 in). This length was determined (in toises) by Marin Mersenne in 1644. In 1660, the Royal Society proposed that it be the standard unit of length. In 1675 Tito Livio Burattini proposed that it be named the "meter". In 1790, one year before the metre was ultimately based on a quadrant of the Earth, Talleyrand proposed that the metre be the length of the seconds pendulum at a latitude of 45°. [ [http://www.roma1.infn.it/~dagos/history/sm/node3.html Seconds pendulum] ]

In 1670 the seconds pendulum was employed by William Clement in his improved version of the original pendulum clock by Christian Huygens, creating the longcase clock which could tick seconds. [ [http://illumin.usc.edu/article.php?articleID=64&page=2 Long Case Clock: Pendulum] ]

See also

* Pendulum (mathematics)

References


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