After more than three centuries, scientists may have finally solved the mystery behind pendulums. There may be an explanation to the synchronous swinging of pendulums.
Discovery News revealed that 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. One clock’s pendulum will tend to swing left the moment a second clock’s pendulum moves right. The phenomenon remained unexplained in the next few centuries.
"The two clocks interact, giving two 'kicks,' one in one direction and another one in the opposite direction... Only when the clocks are at phase opposition the effects of the perturbation cancel" and the pendulums swing in opposite directions,” Dr. Henrique M. Oliveira, co-author and mathematician at the University of Lisbon, told Huffington Post.
On July 23, 2015, a study published in the nature journal Scientific Reports proposed the solution that pendulums transfer energy to one another via sound pulses. Two portuguese scientists theorized that the sound pulses may transfer from one clock to another, adjusting the swing of the pendulums until these synchronize accordingly.
Oliveira and co-author Luis Melo from the physics department of Lisbon University hypothesized that length might be the smallest possible dimension that guarantees that the two pendulums will not push against each other. The period adjusts by lengthening the actual pendulum by manipulating the screws at the base of the clocks. The sound pulses can affect the manner that the pendulum swings, eventually resulting to synchronized movement.
Dispatch Times reported that scientists also tested their concept by attaching two pendulum clocks to an aluminum rail positioned on a wall. Furthermore, the new finding might provide more information about oscillators. The scientists created a complex mathematical model and found that their theoretical predictions and the simulation rendered compatible results.
“We could… verify that the energy transfer is through a sound pulse,” said co-author Melo in the same report by Discovery News. He added that the new solution will solve the old fundamental problem regarding pendulums, as well as increase knowledge on other kinds of oscillators.
The finding revealed that very minor interactions can add up and result to the synchronization of very large systems. The same basic principles are also present in other fields like economics, biology and electronics, among others. These may have the same concept in human body cells and other complex systems.