My name is Fergus Riche, and I am an engineering student at the University of Cambridge, as well as a watchmaker in training. I have written this article on how a balance keeps time for those of you with a reasonably solid knowledge of physics, but I have tried to include intuitive analogies wherever possible in order to keep the ideas accessible to the lay person.
Hi Fergus,
Thank you for taking the time to contribute to my blog. Fascinating stuff! No why are balances not isochronous in the real world? 😉
Christian
Ah, you’ve noticed the little discrepancy that I decided not to explain! I noted on page three that I didn’t take account of any frictional forces, which are a function of the balance (angular) velocity. This discrepancy, along with the fact that the restoring force provided by the spring isn’t quite linear, creates anisochronism in the real world. That’s something that needs a rather more extensive treatment to derive, though!