[time-nuts] Non electrical time-nuttery

Neville Michie namichie at gmail.com
Tue Jan 12 01:47:25 UTC 2010


The clock is not actually driven by light, which has a very small  
momentum,
but by molecular kinetic energy. The mica sheets are heated on one  
side by radiant energy
while their other side stays cool. The thin air in the vessel has a  
larger than normal
molecular mean free path length. All molecules are vibrating with  
Brownian motion,
when an air molecule impinges on a hot side of the mica
it picks up some kinetic energy, more than if it hit the cool side.  
This is enough to give a small thrust.
If you pump the tube down to a hard vacuum then the effect stops.
It still is an interesting clock, but a magnetic field or an  
electrostatic field could also
be used to maintain the pendulum.

cheers, Neville Michie


On 12/01/2010, at 8:36 AM, Bill S wrote:

> There is actually an "optically pumped" pendulum clock that was  
> designed by Betrisy called the Chronolith. Conceptually really  
> interesting. You can see it on his website: http://www.betrisey.ch/ 
> echronolit.htm
>
> Bill S
>
>
> J. Forster wrote:
>> Maybe you could "pump" the pendulum optically, using a beam of  
>> light, like
>> those glass bulb "radiometers" they sell that spin on a sunny window
>> ledge.
>>
>> -John
>>
>> =============
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
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