Huygens' odd Sympathy Experiment Revisited

We repeat Huygens' experiment using real pendulum clocks in the same way as it was done originally, i.e. we hang two clocks on the same beam and observe the behavior of the pendulums. The clocks in the experiment have been selected in such a way so as to be as identical as possible. It has been observed that when the beam is allowed to move horizontally, the clocks can synchronize both in-phase and anti-phase. We perform computer simulations of the clocks' behavior to answer the question how the nonidentity of the clocks influences the synchronization process. We show that even the clocks with significantly different periods of oscillations can synchronize, but their periods are modified by the beam motion so they are no more accurate.

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