The Simple Harmonic Pendulum

Joel Ballard

Spring 2012
Contents
1 Introduction 1
1.1 History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

2 Assumptions 2

3 Variables 3

4 Equations 4

5 The Small Angle Approximation 6

6 Conclusion 9

1
 Abstract

Modeling the motion of the simple harmonic pendulum from Newton’s second
law, then comparing this with the small angle approximation model using MAT-
LAB.
1 Introduction
1.1 History
“Pendulum” from the Latin “pendulus”meaning “hanging”

Galileo Galilei began experimenting with pendulums in 1602. Galilei first

became interested as a university student when Galilei was watching a lamp
swinging in a cathedral in Pisa, Italy. Galilei discovered that the period almost
entirely upon length. Galilei theorized that a clock could be made using a
pendulum.
Christiaan Huygens was the first person to use this idea when Huygens con-
structed a clock using a pendulum in 1665. For the day it was very accurate,
only losing one minute per day. Huygens later improved this to a loss of ten
seconds per day.

1.2 Applications
Pendulums have many applications and were utilized often before the digital age.
They are used in clocks and metronomes due to the regularity of their period,
in wrecking balls and playground swings, due to their simple way of building
up and keeping energy. They are even found in various scientific instruments,
from seismographs to early torpedo guidance systems, due to their sensitivity
to disturbance. A predecessor to the seismograph was based on an inverted
pendulum, Chang Heng’s Dragon Jar invented at around 123 A.D..

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2 Assumptions
All models are full of assumptions. Some of these assumptions are very accurate,
such as the pendulum is unaffected by the day of the week. Some of these
assumptions are less accurate but we are still going to make them, friction does
not effect the system. Here is a list of some of the more notable assumptions of
this model of a pendulum.

• Friction from both air resistance and the system is negligible.

• The pendulum swings in a perfect plane.

• The arm of the pendulum cannot bend or stretch/compress.

• The arm is massless.

• Gravity is a constant 9.8 meter/second2 .

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3 Variables

m = mass at the swinging end of the pendulum (kilograms)

g = acceleration due to gravity (meter/second2 )

L = length from the swivel point to the center of mass (meters)

θ = angle between the string position to the string position at rest (radians)

t = time (seconds)

T = period of the pendulum (time for one complete cycle) (seconds)

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4 Equations
We will now derive the simple harmonic motion equation of a pendulum from
Newton’s second Law.

F = ma
Acceleration due to gravity will be a function of θ. At θ = π2 −→ |a| = g and
at θ = 0 −→ a = 0, considering the relation of acceleration and θ we arrive at

a = −g sin θ (1)

arc length (arcL ) of the pendulum can be thought of as the “position” of the
system
arcL = Lθ

acceleration of the system will now be

d2 θ
a=L
dt2
plug in equation (1) to get the simple harmonic motion of a pendulum shown
in equation (2)

d2 θ g
+ sin θ = 0 (2)
dt2 L

Now we will solve equation (2) to get T (period) reduce the second order differ-
ential equation to a first order
"   #
2
dθ d2 θ dθ g d 1 dθ g
∗ + ∗ sin θ = 0 −→ − cos θ = 0
dt dt2 dt L dt 2 dt L

integrate to get the differential equation

 2
dθ 2g
− cos θ = C
dt L

with the initial conditions of θ0 (0) = 0 and θ(0) = θ0 we can solve for C
2g
C=− cos θ0
L
put our C into the equation
 2
dθ 2g
= (cos θ − cos θ0 )
dt L

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Now take the square root of both sides while ignoring the negative because we
are solving for time and either time will be the same distance from our t0 . It is
just a matter of forwards or backwards in time. On the left hand of our equation
lies the rate of change of the angle with respect to time, but we are going to
solve for the period, so we need the time with respect to the angle, because of
this we are going to inverse the entire equation and integrate from 0 to θ0 . We
will now multiply the whole thing by four to get the period. The change in time
to get from 0 to θ0 is only one forth of the entire cycle of the pendulum. This
gives us our new equation of
s Z θ0
L 1 1
T =4 √ dθ (3)
g 2 0 cos θ − cos θ0

This is where MATLAB can prove to be a great asset because equation (3)
cannot be solved in terms of elementary functions.

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5 The Small Angle Approximation
The small angle approximation states that θ ≈ sin(θ) at small angles. Using
this we adjust the equation

d2 θ g d2 θ g
= − sin θ −→ ≈− θ
dt2 L dt2 L
and it is almost the same and far easier to solve.
d2 θ g
≈− θ (4)
dt2 L
g
λ2 + =0
L
λ = ± Lg i in the form of a ± bi
p

using the complex roots case for solving second-order equations

y(t) = eat [A1 cos(bt) + A2 sin(bt)]

We can solve for A1 and A2 which are arbitrary constants using the initial
conditions θ(0) = θ0 and θ0 = 0. We get A1 = θ0 and A2 = 0. Thus we come to
the solution r 
g
θ(t) ≈ θ0 cos t (5)
L
Using the above equation we create the period equation by setting θ = 0. We
can solve for t, and this gives us one fourth of the total period. Now we multiply
by four and get s
L
T ≈ 2π (6)
g

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 Which means at “small angles” less than 10 ◦ or so, the period of the pen-
dulum is completely dependent on the length of the arm and gravity, because
θ ≈ sin θ at “small angles” as demonstrated in the graph below.

d2 θ g
Now using odesolve on MATLAB and breaking dt2 + L sin θ = 0 into a sys-
tem of two first order equations

x01 = x2 (7)
−g
x02 = sin(x1 ) (8)
L
d2 θ g
and breaking dt2 + Lθ = 0 into

x01 = x2 (9)
−g
x02 = x1 (10)
L

we get the two graphs below. Showing the difference between the simple har-
monic model and the small angle approximation model.

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8
6 Conclusion
Pendulums are not too difficult to predict if a person only needs a few significant
figures, or is willing to stay at fairly small angles. So next time a person is stuck
on a desert island and needs a way to measure short amounts of time or keep
perfect rhythm for their island song. A pendulum is easy to make and with a
little bit of math, easy to understand, one could even use the swaying of their
hammock, assuming a fairly uniform driving force. If tropical paradise is too
old fashioned, and one’s dreams are far bigger than this small planet can offer,
then gravity could become the variable instead of length. One could become
the MacGyver of space travel and use a pendulum to calculate the gravity (and
mass) of a newly discovered world.

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References
[1] Differential Equations with Boundary Value Problems Polking, Boggess,
Arnold
[2] The Simple Pendulum www.acs.psu.edu/drussell/Demos/
[3] Pendulum (mathematics) www.wikipedia.org

[4] Pendulum www.wikipedia.org

[5] Mathematical Swingers: The Simple Pendulum as a Log Application
www.http://my.execpc.com
[6] The History of the Pendulum www.bukisa.com

[7] Pendulum Shifts to Active ETFs www.etftrends.com

[8] hammock-on-the-beach www.rajatandena.files.wordpress.com

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