A scientist observed that, when an object, freely hanging from a point, is pulled from its position of rest, and released, it went on swinging for some time. The common swing or a lamp suspended from the ceiling are examples. His observation was that the time taken for one swing is the same, whether the amplitude of the swing was high, as when we pull the object to the maximum, or it was very small, as at the end of its motion, just about to rest.
He made a pendulum in the laboratory and studies its motion. The weight of the suspended object is immaterial in this study. He found. Thus , for the first time, man could use the pendulum to measure the time- the grandfather clock!
In earlier times, sand falling through or water entering through a small hole, into a vessel, floating in water, till it went down, were used; but the clock was the best thing, easy to make and it could the whole thing could be suspended on gimbals, in a ship, which behaved violently, on waves.
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