[time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery

[Bill Hawkins]

My guess, as a mechanical engineer from MIT in 1960, is that light
damping is required to allow the pendulum to settle to its natural
frequency after being started.

The Brownian Motion thing is also correct for radiometers. You need
some molecules, but not many.

Bill Hawkins

-----Original Message-----
From: Hal Murray
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 9:04 PM

djl at montana.com said:
> Also, according to some info I read on pendulum clocks, vacuum does
> not work because some viscous drag is needed to damp the free
> pendulum; 

Why do I need damping?

I thought the general idea on oscillators was to get the highest Q (lowest 
damping) that was reasonable.  But now that I think about it, I'm not sure 
why.