• alsimoneau@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    21 hours ago

    It’s only 0.3% off. You probably have more uncertainty on the length of the pendulum.

    • Successful_Try543@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      16 hours ago

      0.3 % would correspond to 3 mm difference in length of the pendulum.
      After an hour, the difference between real and measured time would already be 10.9 s, and over an entire day, it would accumulate to 261.3 s, way too much for useful long term measurements.
      Yet, it is an useful approximation for qualitative measurements, e.g. when Galileo Galilei did his fall experiments, he might have used a prendulum instead of his pulse for measuring.

      • alsimoneau@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        11 hours ago

        I’m not hauling this as the ultimate time keeping method. Friction in the system will mean you need to readjust it anyways. It’s just a neat fact that pi^2 ~= g