Talk:Edward Sabine
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Fascinating guy, see last paragraph. I didn't know what this part meant:
- Of Sabine's scientific work two branches in particular deserve very high credit
- Determination of the length of the second's pendulum
Ortolan88 16:31 Nov 19, 2002 (UTC)
I'd think it would be (in effect) a measurement of the local strength of gravity, as the period of a pendulum depends on its length and the local gravity. Though I'd think you'd need some pretty accurate measurements to pick up local differences in the Earth's gravity - 1 part in 1000 or less, perhaps? -- Malcolm Farmer 17:00 Nov 19, 2002 (UTC)
Could you stick a parenthetical phrase in? Still over my head. Speaking of accurate measurement, I left out the Anders Jonas Angstrom article the fact that his meter was the wrong length and thus his entire spectrum analysis was off (consistently though).
BTW, that punctuation was from the EB1911 scan. The only MS product I use is IE for Macs, and that only in self-defense against the double perversity of web developers who ignore the Mac and ignore all other browsers. Ortolan88
Oops, I was thinking of someone else. On actually reading the article, it sounds as as if its Weights and Measures work; defining precisely the length of the pendulum used to define the standard second (well, what would you use, in the days before electronics and atomic clocks?) Dominique Arago was the gravitational variation guy - and also Francis Baily, who I just found when searching Wikipedia to find the Arago article -- Malcolm Farmer 17:17 Nov 19, 2002 (UTC)~