Scribd
Upload
208 views1 page

Simple Pendulum Oscillation Explained

1) The document describes the oscillation of a simple pendulum, which consists of a point mass hanging from a massless string. 2) The equation of motion for a simple pendulum is derived from Newton's second law as d^2θ/dt^2 + g/L sinθ = 0, where θ is the angular displacement. 3) For small angular displacements, the equation reduces to one of simple harmonic motion, with the period of oscillation depending only on the length of the string and not the mass.

Uploaded by

Ali Bandar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
208 views1 page

Simple Pendulum Oscillation Explained

1) The document describes the oscillation of a simple pendulum, which consists of a point mass hanging from a massless string. 2) The equation of motion for a simple pendulum is derived from Newton's second law as d^2θ/dt^2 + g/L sinθ = 0, where θ is the angular displacement. 3) For small angular displacements, the equation reduces to one of simple harmonic motion, with the period of oscillation depending only on the length of the string and not the mass.

Uploaded by

Ali Bandar
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

10/21/22, 3:10 PM Oscillation of a Simple Pendulum

Acoustics and Vibration Animations


Daniel A. Russell, Graduate Program in Acoustics, The Pennsylvania State University

This work by Dan Russell is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at [Link]

The content of this page was updated on June 18, 2018.

Oscillation of a Simple Pendulum


The Equation of Motion
A simple pendulum consists of a ball (point-mass) m hanging from a (massless) string of length L
point P. When displaced to an initial angle and released, the pendulum will swing back and forth w
applying Newton's secont law for rotational systems, the equation of motion for the pendulum ma
2
d θ
2
τ = Iα ⇒ −mg sin θ L = mL
2
dt

and rearranged as
2
d θ g
+ sin θ = 0
2
dt L

If the amplitude of angular displacement is small enough, so the small angle approximation ($\sin
holds true, then the equation of motion reduces to the equation of simple harmonic motion
2
d θ g
+ θ = 0
2
dt L

The simple harmonic solution is

θ(t) = θo cos(ωt) ,

where θo is the initial angular displacement, and ω = √g/L the natural frequency of the motion. The period of this sytem (time for

2π L
T = = 2π√ .
ω g

Small Angular Displacements Produce Simple Harmonic Motion

The period of a pendulum does not depend on the mass of the ball, but only on the length of the string. Two pendula with different m
length will have the same period. Two pendula with different lengths will different periods; the pendulum with the longer string will ha

How many complete oscillations do the blue and brown pendula complete in the time for one complete oscillation of the longer (blac

From this information and the definition of the period for a simple pendulum, what is the ratio of lengths for the three pendula?

[Link] applying Newton's secont law,enough%2C so the small angle 1/2

You might also like