Pendulum Motion

While watching the Tennessee vs. Florida game, an announcer brought up something I have never thought of before, "Who discovered that 'Mississippi' was an accurate measurement for a second?" Reading this article made me rethink this question.  A pendulum is the most accurate measure of time while doing a science experiment. I have never put that much thought into a pendulum other than being the annoying "tick tock" on my parents' clock. This article also taught me the pendulum's accurate time measurement solved the problem of navigation. I never knew time measurement had anything to do with latitude and longitude. It is a much more complicated process than I ever imagined.