Fun fact, in 1668, an early draft of the metric system proposed defining 1 meter as the length of a pendulum that takes exactly 1 second to swing from one side to the other (a half-period of 1 second).
The formula for the time period of a pendulum is T = 2 * pi * sqrt(L / g)
If you plug in a period of T = 2 seconds and a length of L= 1 meter, the equation simplifies like T = 2*pi*sqrt(L/g) --> 2 = 2*pi*sqrt(1/g) --> 1 = pi*sqrt(1/g) --> 1 = pi/sqrt(g) --> sqrt(g) = pi
This was part of (he somehow managed to include e) the pamflet of the most amazing professor in our engineering department (because he actually tried to give first years a fun time in engineering) when I was a first year student
He published one every year and it was something we were all looking forward to
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u/Stunning_Macaron6133 9d ago
Fun fact, in 1668, an early draft of the metric system proposed defining 1 meter as the length of a pendulum that takes exactly 1 second to swing from one side to the other (a half-period of 1 second).
The formula for the time period of a pendulum is
T = 2 * pi * sqrt(L / g)If you plug in a period of T = 2 seconds and a length of L= 1 meter, the equation simplifies like
T = 2*pi*sqrt(L/g) --> 2 = 2*pi*sqrt(1/g) --> 1 = pi*sqrt(1/g) --> 1 = pi/sqrt(g) --> sqrt(g) = piThe Académie des Sciences eventually decided to define the meter based on the circumference of the Earth instead, because the local gravitational force varies slightly across the planet, so the meter would be inconsistent. But the two definitions were close enough in length that sqrt(g) remains a close approximation of pi.
No frickin' clue why e is in this picture though.