Engineering · The escapement

How does a pendulum clock keep time?

Name: How does a pendulum clock keep time?
Uploaded: 2026-10-25
Duration: 24 s
Description: A falling weight wants to spin a clock's gears as fast as it can. The escapement stops it. A swinging pendulum rocks an anchor that lets one tooth slip past at each swing, tick, then locks the wheel again, tock. A pendulum one metre long swings once a second, so the gears count seconds, minutes and hours.

What you’ll see

A falling weight wants to spin a clock's gears as fast as it can. The escapement stops it. A swinging pendulum rocks an anchor that lets one tooth slip past at each swing, tick, then locks the wheel again, tock. A pendulum one metre long swings once a second, so the gears count seconds, minutes and hours.