An experiment in 2005 undertook a variation of the 1774 work: instead of computing local differences in the zenith, the experiment made a very accurate comparison of the period of a pendulum at the top and bottom of Schiehallion. The period of a pendulum is a function of g, the local gravitational acceleration. The pendulum is expected to run more slowly at altitude, but the mass of the mountain will act to reduce this difference. This experiment has the advantage of being considerably easier to conduct than the 1774 one, but to achieve the desired accuracy, it is necessary to measure the period of the pendulum to within one part in one million. This experiment yielded a value of the mass of the Earth of 8.1 ± 2.4 × 10 kg, corresponding to a mean density of 7,500 ± 1,900 kg·m.