Talks

The Keeper of the Clock gives talks to general audiences on the subject of the Clock.

The remarkable accuracy of the Trinity College Clock

The Trinity Clock in Great Court is quite a prominent feature of the college, at least to look at. And it has a rather curious way of announcing the hours, once for Trinity and a second time for St John's. It is always within a second or two of the correct time and yet it hardly ever requires adjustment. Does this mean that the mechanism is unaffected by the elements? What about temperature, pressure, humidity? And does the gravitational pull of the moon make any difference? The pendulum on the Trinity Clock has been instrumented to measure period and amplitude to great accuracy. The time is compared with UTC obtained from a GPS receiver. All of this data is streamed continuously to the web at http://www.trin.cam.ac.uk/clock/. If you thought that the physics of a pendulum was simple, then think again!
Publications:
  • 2010, The Fountain, Spring 2010 "Spiders and Pigeons: the pressures on the Great Court Clock"
  • 2010, Newton, the proceedings of the Trinity College Science Society "The Remarkable Accuracy of the Trinity Great Court Clock"
    Upcoming talks:
  • Saturday 24 July 2010, 4pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre, Trinity College (as part of a Turret Clock Tour)
    Past talks:
  • Tuesday 9 March 2010, 6:15pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre (Trinity College Science Society)
  • Friday 26 Feb 2010, 4pm, LR5, Engineering Dept (Friday Tea Talks)
  • Friday 11 Dec 2009, 7pm, Winstanley Lecture Theatre (IOP Physics Teachers' Update Course)
  • Thursday 12 Nov 2009, 6.30pm, Master's Lodge, Fellow's Research Talk