Why would anyone design a pendulum to work that way? What allowed him to see that as a potential answer? WOW,, Ohh, wait,, I know,,

They lived in a time when there were few distractions. People DID things. Toyed with chemicals, music, tinkering with inventions, no tv,, no facebook,

I spent 3 days just Not Talking to people any more than a nod in passing, as I worked on algebra in my head. Algebra was killing me in school, but, after 3 days I sat down & just started writing, one equation became the parent of the next, it was just equation after equation, came pouring out, for 3 pages & I could FEEL the progression of the mathematical processes as I went thru each equation, then, it stopped, the next series just wouldnt come, so, I studied it a bit for a couple of days, no progress. I asked my Chemistry lab partner ( He did all the math, I did the Hands On labs, we made real good grades) to come over.

He didnt believe I did the math, at first, finally I convinced him I was the source of the equations he was looking at,, so, he went thru it, & went thru ut again & said

Do you know why you stopped?

Uhh, nope..

Well,, youve gone thru every bit of algebra, from the simplest to the most complex, & there IS no9 more algebra, the next step to be taken is Calculus. He told me some Old Timey mathematicians name & told me he had written the same thing, only he did it several times, on his way to discovering The Calculus.,Was that Newton? I think soi,,

Anyway, the only way I could do algebra was to immerse myself in it,lose myself, as in, deny myself real contact with others. So, if you meet someone who is in their own little world & theyre REally REally able to do something few can do, they may have just decided theyd rather be there than in contact with the world,
I cant solve a quadratic equation. I didnt want to be good at math so badly as to change who I was,,