How pendulum clocks reduced timekeeping errors

Pendulum clocks cut daily errors from minutes to seconds

About 10 Seconds Per Day

A pendulum takes almost the same amount of time for each swing, making it useful for keeping time. Christiaan Huygens used this idea in his 1656 pendulum clock. Early versions were wrong by less than a minute per day, and later ones cut the error to about 10 seconds.

A snapping shrimp's claw can produce a tiny flash of light

When a snapping shrimp closes its specialized claw, it creates a fast-moving water jet and a collapsing bubble. The collapse produces a powerful pressure pulse and can generate a brief flash of light through sonoluminescence. The flash is too faint and short to see with the naked eye. A tiny crustacean can create an extreme physical event using only its claw.

Waiting for harvests helped create credit

Farmers have to plant long before they can harvest. In early Mesopotamia, this delay helped create a need for credit and records. Temples stored grain, wrote deposits on clay tablets, and issued tokens that people could use to pay fees or debts.

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How pendulum clocks reduced timekeeping errors

Pendulum clocks cut daily errors from minutes to seconds

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