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LONDON: After more than three centuries of invention of pendulum clocks, scientists have finally solved the mystery behind pendulums. There may be an explanation to the synchronous swinging of pendulums.
According to Discovery News, almost 350 years ago, Dutch scientist and inventor Christiaan Huygens noted that two pendulum clocks hanging on the same wall would synchronize their swings after a period of time.
Huygens also noted that pendulum of one clock will tend to swing left the moment a second clock’s pendulum moves right. He called the effect ‘an odd kind of sympathy’ in his letter to the Royal Society, which has remained unexplained for centuries.
Dr. Henrique M. Oliveira, co-author and mathematician at the University of Lisbon, said in explanation that the two clocks interact, giving two ‘kicks’, one in one direction and another one in the opposite.
He stated that the pendulums start swinging in opposite directions only when the clocks are at phase opposition where the effects of the perturbation get cancelled.
