Describe the energy transformation taking place in an oscillatory pendulum with the help of
following diagram
Answers
the energy transformation taking place in an oscillatory pendulum is kinetic energy
Answer:
A pendulum repeatedly converts gravitational potential energy (GPE) to kinetic energy and back again.
When the pendulum is at the highest point of its swing, it’s GPE is at a maximum and at the same time it has an instantaneous velocity of zero, so it’s kinetic energy is also zero.
As it swings down, it accelerates, trading GPE for kinetic energy. At the lowest point of the swing, its GPE reaches a minimum and its velocity (and therefore its kinetic energy) reaches a maximum. From that point, the pendulum is rising again, decelerating and trading kinetic energy for GPE until it reaches the highest point of the swing on the other side, when GPE is again at a maximum and kinetic energy is zero.
In a perfect system, this would continue for ever, but it the real world a small amount of energy is lost on each swing, due to air resistance and friction in the pendulum’s pivot. Clocks have special mechanisms to give the pendulum a little extra push on each swing to compensate for this lost energy.