Fundamental limit on timing resolution?

[S KParticipant @sk20060]

If all you care about is measuring long term drift over months, then little to nothing. You could perhaps average sand egg-timers and do OK.

What RMS values for a sequence of periods are people seeing? I recall about 3 us RMS for my old one. A part of my inquiry is wondering if this is actually from the pendulum’s disturbances in motion or from hidden randomness in the timing apparatus. The above math appears to support asking this question.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

It will give you a nice warm glow of satisfaction.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

Double post

[duncan webster 1]

On duncan webster 1 Said:

It will give you a nice warm glow of satisfaction.

I see you know what’s really important in life! 😄

I have a tentative shopping basket ready containing a laser, two slits, a sensor, and a few other goodies. It’s an interesting subject for experimentation, and that’s good enough for me.

Does no-one have a solid number for the jitter in their period measurements?

 

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

https://groups.io/g/Horological-Science-Newsletter/topic/evolution_of_a_new_pendulum/97703057#

This thread over on HSN has various numbers for jitter.

[S KParticipant @sk20060]

Interesting – thank you.

It will take a while to study the whole thread and its data, but a range of 8-12 us is noted in some of the earlier posts. These numbers are somewhat worse than I was expecting.

My new pendulum is lighter than yours (~6 lb brass bob) and will have worse performance. That’s not as good for a comparison, e.g. between a Sharp opto and a “Super-Sharp(tm)” upgrade, but it would be interesting anyway.

I’ve joined the “other” forum and made a first post there.

 

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Those may have been for earlier tests with a less rigid 6mm CF tube rod. Clear that there was additional modes being excited.

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