'Temperamental' Big Ben was ringing up to six seconds late

Re:'Temperamental' Big Ben was ringing up to six seconds late by mapt on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @04:50AM (#10121823)

The pendulum's period isn't affected by its bob mass at all, in the simple models of a pendulum, only length from axle to center of mass of the bob.

I invite an armchair physics teacher to explain why this is different. Probably something to do with shifting the center of mass closer to the axle.

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Re:'Temperamental' Big Ben was ringing up to six seconds late by makomk on Wednesday August 26, 2015 @05:17AM (#10121905)

Yeah. They're actually putting them on a shelf a fair way up the pendulum itself, so I imagine that adding them shifts the center of mass noticeably. (Though we're talking single-digit parts per million corrections here, so they don't need to shift it by a huge amount.)

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