if pendulum clock is accurate at sea level, will it gain or lose time when taken to high amplitude?why?

Answer 1

A pendulum clock keeps time by the swing of the pendulum controlling an escapement in the gears of the clock which causes the hands of the clock to turn at the proper rate.

These clocks must also have a set of weights that cause the gears to turn in the first place so that the swing of the pendulum can stop the otherwise continuous turning.

A pendulum swings at the rate it swings because of its length and because of the force of gravity. That's it. Just those two quantities and nothing else.

So, for a given length (Ignoring the effects of air resistance) a pendulum with a huge weight on the end of the string and a pendulum with a small weight on the end of the string will swing at the exact same rate.

So much for the length. Now for the force of gravity. The greater the force of gravity the shorter the rate of the pendulum's swing. So, a pendulum on the moon will have a longer period than the same pendulum on the earth because there is less gravity on the moon than on the earth.

Now, if you have two pendulums of equal length, one at the bottom of a mountain and one at the tip of a mountain the pendulum at the bottom will have a greater gravitational pull on it than the pendulum at the top of the mountain so its period will be shorter that the one at the top of the mountain.

So, the clock at the top of the mountain will run slower than the clock at the bottom of the mountain. You could fix this by making the pendulum at the top of the mountain shorter thus making its period shorter too and thus speeding up the rate at which it keeps time.

Answer 2

I think you mean "high altitude".
The reason for a change in behaviour of the pendulum clock is that g (the acceleration of gravity) changes with altitude. Since the period of a pendulum is a function of both the length of the pendulum and of g which is not constant except at a fixed distance from the Earth's surface(like at sea level) the period of the clock will also change.

Answer 3

If you mean altitude instead of amplitude, general relativity says all clocks tick more slowly the stronger the gravitational field, so much so that at in a super massive black hole, time stops.

So clocks tick faster at higher altitude. Probably could not practically measure the difference from sea level to 100 km though.

Answer 4

T = 2 * pi * sqrt(L/g)

If g is decreased, T (the period) will increase which means a single cycle will take longer, making the pendulum gain time.

Answer 5

it is going to benefit time. larger Altitude = much less Gravitational stress much less Gravitational stress = much less stress on the fabric of Time Clocks flow quicker with much less resistance. Albeit, the variation would be minute, yet there will be a distinction