Kater's pendulum
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Kater's pendulum is a reversible pendulum designed and built by Captain Henry Kater in 1817 to measure the acceleration of free fall so that gravity may be calculated without knowledge of the pendulum's centre of gravity and radius of gyration. Refinements in the method include the use of light wooden weights matched in size, shape, and location (by symmetry) to the nominal masses for balancing aerodynamic effects and the use of electronic timers.
[edit] External articles
- "Mg-2 Kater's reversible pendulum". University of Melbourne, School of Physics, Lecture Demonstration Manual.
- "Kater's pendulum". The Inference Group, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
- Kater's original work was published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1818 (Phil. Trans. R. Soc. London, 108, 33, 1818).
