Also, from the mechanical, historical perspective—a drop that landed at the dead center beneath the pendulum’s contact with the branch would have had to leave the cube in a brief moment of time before passing over the center, with exactly enough forward velocity at the moment it left the cube such that it would hit the center by the time it reached the ground (depends on how far up it’s hung)… which is a tiny portion of total drips, I assume?
Slight adjustment to your scenario:
the ice-cube’s residence-times are maximized at the extrema, so your drips would concentrate toward the two extremes.
Also, from the mechanical, historical perspective—a drop that landed at the dead center beneath the pendulum’s contact with the branch would have had to leave the cube in a brief moment of time before passing over the center, with exactly enough forward velocity at the moment it left the cube such that it would hit the center by the time it reached the ground (depends on how far up it’s hung)… which is a tiny portion of total drips, I assume?