Make the most of your extra second
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Ebeneezer Scrooge
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How do they do that? Does it suggest that Big Ben is 1 second out at the moment, in preparation for the midnight bong? I can't imagine they'd have someone up there waiting to add a second at the right time!
Snarky
They are slowing the pendulum down slightly over the course of the evening, which gets it to accuracy by 00:00:00.Ebeneezer Scrooge wrote:How do they do that? Does it suggest that Big Ben is 1 second out at the moment, in preparation for the midnight bong? I can't imagine they'd have someone up there waiting to add a second at the right time!
(Information courtesy of tonight's PM on Radio 4).
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Gavin Scott
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They've used the traditional method - adding or removing coins from the swinging pendulum changes the speed of the ticks by 2/5 of a second over a period of time. How long a period I can't recall, but they've adjusted the pendulum weight recently to take the correction into account.Ebeneezer Scrooge wrote:How do they do that? Does it suggest that Big Ben is 1 second out at the moment, in preparation for the midnight bong? I can't imagine they'd have someone up there waiting to add a second at the right time!
IIRC from the report I saw on BBC News this morning they said it was 2/5 of a second each day by the removal of a pre-decimal penny, so that would meas they started the adjustment sometime on Monday to make it correct for midnight tonight.Gavin Scott wrote:They've used the traditional method - adding or removing coins from the swinging pendulum changes the speed of the ticks by 2/5 of a second over a period of time. How long a period I can't recall, but they've adjusted the pendulum weight recently to take the correction into account.
I doubt someone is there to put the penny back on at midnight, so their adjustments may already be complete - technically making the clock a second ahead until midnight (not that anyone will notice).
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The importance of Big Ben in the Nation's new year celebrations means that in fact there are TWO teams of clockmakers on duty at the Palace of Westminster in case of any problems tonight.Stuart* wrote:I doubt someone is there to put the penny back on at midnight, so their adjustments may already be complete - technically making the clock a second ahead until midnight (not that anyone will notice).
