Explaining why the clock pendulum shook at the same rhythm

Physicists have officially answered the 350-year-old conundrum that energy can be transmitted through sound pulses in the air.

Scientists explain why the clock pendulum shakes at the same pace

Nearly 350 years ago, Dutch scientist & inventor Christiaan Huygens observed and realized that when placing two pendulum clocks near each other, after a period of time, two pendulum would shake at the same pace. .

In 1665, by chance, scientists observed and found that two pendulum clocks have a similar structure when hung on a wall close to each other, with pendulum shaking in the same direction in the opposite direction, that is, if The clock's pendulum on the left is crossing the left, the clock on the right will turn right, they are in sync with each other strangely and accurately. At that time, they only determined the speed, the rhythm of the pendulum depends by its length.

That phenomenon caused scientists to turn off in the last 3.5 centuries and until today, a report in Scientific Reports of two scientists in Portugal gave the answer to That question: the pendulum "transmits" energy to each other through sound pulses. The energy waves traveling through the air from one clock (pendulum) to the other, over time will cause the previous pendulum to staggered to become "in sync" and become shaken at the same pace. together.

To prove that hypothesis, two scientists developed a complex mathematical model on a computer before conducting a practical experiment with two pendulum clocks hanging close together on the wall. The results are consistent with the hypothesis: "We can verify that the transmission of energy by sound pulses is real," said Luis Melo, professor of physics, working at the University of Lisbon.

The experimental results of Luis Melo and colleagues not only answered a difficult problem posed by Huygens, but also increased human understanding of the type of oscillators. In the middle of the 17th century, Christiaan Huygens was known for his ability to craft handcrafted super-accurate pendulum clocks, with errors less than 1 minute a day, later improving the number to only less than 10 seconds.