Huygens' Clock Puzzle Solved

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Posted by Hemos on Wednesday February 20, 2002 @08:30PM from the tick-tock-tick-tick-tock dept.

PhotoGuy writes "Okay, I haven't heard of this puzzle either until now, but it sounds like a fascinating phenomenon. According to this article:Huygens had two clocks side by side and he found that even when they began out of sync, they soon got into a rhythm where the pendulum on one moved as if it were a mirror image of the other.The article is pretty light on the explanation, noting only the conditions required (small relative mass of the pendulums [pendula?], relatively close speed of the clocks), and not really addressing the physics behind it. " There's a great site at Georgia Tech that explains the puzzle in more detail.

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It's a sad day on /. by wondercat2 · 2002-02-20 20:44 · Score: 0, Offtopic

When the first 5 posts on an article are all -1 or 0. *shrug* the trolls are alive and well...
1. Re:It's a sad day on /. by dinodrac · 2002-02-20 22:37 · Score: 0, Offtopic
  
  /me puts up a don't feed the trolls sign :)
Re:odds by yawnmoth · 2002-02-20 20:50 · Score: 0, Offtopic

ugh - i've been using vbulletin too much!
Re:wondering??? by jkrise · 2002-02-20 22:54 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Still wondering what to do after solving all those puzzles? Locate bugs in Windows. That should take a few lifetimes, I guess. KRS

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If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Same type of thing with fireflies by Enoch5:24 · 2002-02-21 00:13 · Score: 0, Offtopic

I remember an article from Science News years ago that had a cover story about fireflies synchronizing themselves with each other. There was a picture of a tree with fireflies in it (on the cover), and the article told that if they stayed around each other long enough, they would all blink at the same frequency. I thought that that was a pretty neat thing at the time. I wonder if there's some underlying connection between Huygen's sympathetic oscillations and the firefly phenomenon?
If anybody remembers the article and wants to let me know what issue it was, I can try looking it up. A search on their website produced no results, so I'm guessing that its pre-96.

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"You seem like a decent fellow. I hate to die." - The Man in Black, from The Princess Bride
Re:It's all you deserve by Alan+Partridge · 2002-02-21 01:24 · Score: 0, Offtopic

what a load of crap - this place isn't a democracy and bandwidth is both finite AND costly. are you six years old?

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That was classic intercourse!
Re:odds by hrieke · 2002-02-21 01:32 · Score: 0, Offtopic

Well there's always these two riddles:
How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

And

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Toosie Pop?

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III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIIIV IIVIIIIIIVIII...
Re:odds by Bob+McCown · 2002-02-21 01:53 · Score: 0, Offtopic

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Toosie Pop?
But we already know this one, the Wise Old Owl showed us. It's three!
One...two-hooo...three crunch three