The pendulum was an installation I set up on occasion of the faculty’s semester show. In the team of students designing the show we had decided to make time the topic of this semester’s show, one of my tasks was the yearly installation promoting the event.
The ten meter long pendulum was installed in the glazed facade of the university for two weeks, oscillating in an interval of two seconds at night.
The effect of glowing at night was achieved by finishing the constructions cladding with fluorescent colour that was then illuminated by black light.
As the son of an industrial designer, high-school graduate with a focus on physics and Lego-player, I enjoyed planning and setting up the pendulum.
The pendulum is forced into a excited oscillation by a small spring which is periodically extended by an electric motor that rotates an adjustable excenter.
As the pendulum was about ten meters long and weighted about 50 kilograms, the excitation took about five minutes, after which a regular oscillation of exactly two-seconds set in.
The suspension as well as the pendulum itself was mainly built of aluminium. An axis with two attached ball bearings enabled the pendulum to rotate easily.
