Question

Write an expression for the time period of a simple pendulum.


(i) What happens to the time period of two pendulums of equal length, but with different masses?


(ii) What happens to time period if the length of the pendulum is increased 16 times?

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Answer 1

Answer:

Pendulums are in common usage. Some have crucial uses, such as in clocks; some are for fun, such as a child’s swing; and some are just there, such as the sinker on a fishing line. For small displacements, a pendulum is a simple harmonic oscillator. A simple pendulum is defined to have an object that has a small mass, also known as the pendulum bob, which is suspended from a light wire or string, such as shown in Figure 1. Exploring the simple pendulum a bit further, we can discover the conditions under which it performs simple harmonic motion, and we can derive an interesting expression for its period.

We begin by defining the displacement to be the arc length s. We see from Figure 1 that the net force on the bob is tangent to the arc and equals −mg sinθ. (The weight mg has components mg cosθ along the string and mg sinθ tangent to the arc.) Tension in the string exactly cancels the component mg cosθ parallel to the string. This leaves a net restoring force back