Pendulum Twist: Science Fiction

"Professor, we were wondering if you could recommend a biologist with helping us to identify--Professor? Professor, are you listening?"

Dr. Schwartz shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You do not need a biologist/ All you need to do is look in front of you."

Politely, Jim looked at the pendulum swinging in front of him. "I'm sorry, Professor, I don't think that this is quite what we need right now. There's land out there that none of us recognize, but I figure that a biologist might be able to give us an estimate of where we are."

"Ha!" Dr. Schwartz interrupted, pointing at the pendulum with a shaking finger. "There! Do you see that!?"

"No, professor, I don't. I think I'll just go--"

The professor surged to his feet and seized Jim by the shoulders. "Don't you understand? It changed! The pendulum changed! I deduce that you would notice if the sun in the sky shifted above you too greatly, so we cannot be traveling through time, or perhaps we are traveling enough through time that it syncs up...ahem. The only way the pendulum's rhythm would change is if it was in a different location. Do you understand? Go look at the land you didn't recognize earlier, and it will be even less familiar to you now!"


Inspiration: Foucault's 194th birthday
Story potential: Medium
Notes: Could be a fun shifting-place premise, but, um, I really need to do a bit more research to get the science of the observable details right.