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Seven Tales of the Pendulum

Gregory L. Baker
Publisher: 
Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 
2018
Number of Pages: 
227
Format: 
Paperback
Price: 
19.95
ISBN: 
9780198816904
Category: 
Monograph
[Reviewed by
William J. Satzer
, on
03/27/2018
]

This is a book intended for a general reader, someone with an interest in scientific things and their relationships with human culture. It aims to be an accessible description of the science of the pendulum enriched with descriptions of its cultural and historical background. The author is coauthor of a related book, The Pendulum: A Case Study in Physics, that gives an integrated picture of the pendulum’s classical, quantum and chaotic aspects. This earlier book was directed toward mathematics and physics students and assumed a mathematical background consistent with that. The author then decided to write an “almost non-technical” version that emphasized the role of the pendulum in the development of applied science. The current book is the result.

Most of the topics of the earlier book are present in some respect. Here they are described in individual stories — the seven tales of the title. So we have, for example, “Pendulums Measure the Earth”, “Pendulums Keep Time”, Pendulums Go Chaotic” and so on. Each story has a clear focus, carefully chosen photographs, drawings and figures, and a sketch of the historical background.

The Foucault pendulum story in “Pendulums Measure the Earth” demonstrates the strengths of the book. We get a portrait of Leon Foucault as a wonderfully creative experimentalist in the tumultuous environment of Louis-Napoleon’s France where Foucault first publicly demonstrated his pendulum. As a bonus the author warns us about the obstacles of carrying out a do-it-yourself project to replicate Foucault’s work. He also offers a summary of a modern mystery novel (His Burial Too by Catherine Aird) that describes the use of the Foucault pendulum as a tool for murder.

The mathematical formulas of the earlier book are mostly absent. This doesn’t mean that there is not serious technical content. For example, the first chapter introduces pictorial representations of the pendulum with time series, phase diagrams, and probability plots. One of the book’s appealing aspects is the way the reader is challenged and but not intimidated.

Not all parts of the book work equally well in the “non-technical” format. The treatment of the quantum pendulum in “Pendulums in the Small”, for example, seems a little flat because its more complex physics makes it harder to engage the reader’s intuition. The treatment of synchronized pendulums in “Pendulums Stick Together” moves too quickly to a less intuitive application in secure communication when it might have been better to spend more time with two simple pendulums exchanging energy and reaching synchrony or anti-synchrony. The author’s approach seems to work best with more easily visualized and life-sized systems.

This is a charming and well-written book for general readers, and one that would be of special interest to younger students with an interest in science. It might just be enough to give an extra nudge to a prospective scientist.


Bill Satzer (bsatzer@gmail.com) was a senior intellectual property scientist at 3M Company. His training is in dynamical systems and particularly celestial mechanics; his current interests are broadly in applied mathematics and the teaching of mathematics.

Part I: Introduction
What is a Pendulum?
Part II: Seven Tales of the Pendulum
1. Pendulums measure the earth
2. Pendulums keep Time
3. Pendulums measure fundamental forces
4. Pendulums swing high
5. Pendulums go chaotic
6. Pendulums stick together
7. Pendulums in the small
Part III: Conclusion
Odds and the End
Further Reading
Glossary of Terms
Part I: Introduction
What is a Pendulum?
Part II: Seven Tales of the Pendulum
1. Pendulums measure the earth
2. Pendulums keep Time
3. Pendulums measure fundamental forces
4. Pendulums swing high
5. Pendulums go chaotic
6. Pendulums stick together
7. Pendulums in the small
Part III: Conclusion
Odds and the End
Further Reading
Glossary of Terms
Part I: Introduction
What is a Pendulum?
Part II: Seven Tales of the Pendulum
1. Pendulums measure the earth
2. Pendulums keep Time
3. Pendulums measure fundamental forces
4. Pendulums swing high
5. Pendulums go chaotic
6. Pendulums stick together
7. Pendulums in the small
Part III: Conclusion
Odds and the End
Further Reading
Glossary of Terms