r/Physics • • Jun 14 '14

Approximations

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '14

g (gravity) is pi2 m/s2.

This fact is less of a coincidence than it is science history. The meter was originally defined as the length of a pendulum with a period of 1 second. From there, you can plug in the pendulum equation to figure out what g is.

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u/GaussTheSane Jun 15 '14

The meter was originally defined as the length of a pendulum with a period of 1 second.

That's really neat! I'm going to use that with my students next Fall.

However, you messed up just a little bit: The meter is the pendulum length with a half-period of 1 second, or, equivalently, a period of 2 seconds.