pendulum - Hutchinson encyclopedia article about pendulum Printer Friendly
The Free Dictionary
1,017,472,618 visitors served.
?
Dictionary/
thesaurus
Medical
dictionary
Legal
dictionary
Financial
dictionary
Acronyms
 
Idioms
Encyclopedia
Wikipedia
encyclopedia
?

pendulum

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia 0.04 sec.

pendulum

Enlarge picture
A fresco dating from 1841 in the Observatory Academy, Florence, Italy, which shows the 17-year-old Italian mathematician and astronomer Galileo contemplating a swinging lamp in Pisa Cathedral, and coming to the realization that each swing, long or short, takes the same time. It was only at the end of his life, nearly blind, that Galileo returned to the notion of a pendulum's regularity, and considered its application to clocks.

Weight (called a ‘bob’) swinging at the end of a rod or cord. The regularity of a pendulum's swing was used in making the first really accurate clocks in the 17th century. Pendulums can be used for measuring the acceleration due to gravity (an important constant in physics).

Specialized pendulums are used to measure velocities (ballistic pendulum) and to demonstrate the Earth's rotation (Foucault's pendulum).

For the use of a pendulum in parapsychology, see dowsing.


?Page tools
Printer friendly
Cite / link
Email
Feedback
?Sign in SSL protected
Email:
Password:
Register

? Mentioned in ? References in classic literature
 
He appeared to have an intelligent expression about him of knowing that he was not a lamp at all; that he was a Pendulum; a pendulum disguised, for prodigious and inscrutable purposes of his own deep devising, and not a common pendulum either, but the old original patriarchal Pendulum--the Abraham Pendulum of the world.
It was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum such as we see on antique clocks.
The pendulum beat the seconds, which each player eagerly counted, as he listened, with mathematical regularity.
 
Hutchinson browser? ? Full browser
 
 
Hutchinson Encyclopedia
?

Disclaimer | Privacy policy | Feedback | Copyright © 2008 Farlex, Inc.
All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.. Terms of Use.