Pendulum Lecturer: Professor Stephen T. Thornton

Reading Quiz What is happening to the bridge in this photo? A)A ship passing under the bridge has just hit it. B)This is a fake photo for one of the thriller movies. C)The wind is causing a forced resonant oscillation. D)This is a painting, not a photo.

C) This is a photo of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse of the 1940s. We will watch a video of it today. The bridge oscillated in resonance and eventually broke apart.

Last Time Oscillations Simple harmonic motion Periodic motion Springs Energy

Today Simple pendulum Physical pendulum Damped and forced oscillations

Motion of a Pendulum

Small Angles This is a parabola. Pendulum has similar potential energy to a spring. 0

The Potential Energy of a Simple Pendulum

The Simple Pendulum Position of mass along arc: Velocity along the arc: Tangential acceleration:

The tangential restoring force comes from gravity (tension is always centripetal for a pendulum): We have a restoring force F = -kx for small angle oscillations, which is like Hooke’s law, so we have simple harmonic motion!

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. The Simple Pendulum This is a remarkable result. The period only depends on the length of the pendulum, not the mass! Galileo figured this out as a young man sitting in church while watching the chandeliers swing.

Energy of a simple pendulum: h

Conceptual Quiz: A person sits on a playground swing. When pushed gently once, the swing oscillates back and forth at its natural frequency. If, instead, two people sit side by side on the swing, the new natural frequency of the swing is A)greater. B)smaller. C)the same.

Answer: C The problem statement indicated it is a gentle push, so we assume small oscillations. In that case, the period doesn’t depend on the mass, only the length of the swing.

Conceptual Quiz: Grandfather clocks have a weight at the bottom of the pendulum arm that can be moved up or down to correct the time. Suppose that your grandfather clock runs slow. In which direction do you move the weight to correct the time on the clock? A) up B) down C) moving the weight does not matter. D) throw the clock away and get a new one, because physics is too hard.

A) up In order for the clock to run faster, we want the time between ticks to be smaller. That is, we want the period to decrease. In order to do that we decrease L which decreases the period. We adjust a small screw usually on the bottom of the pendulum arm that raises the weight (mass bob). This decreases L and makes the clock run faster.

Simple Pendulum. What is the period of a simple pendulum 53 cm long (a) on the Earth, and (b) when it is in a freely falling elevator?

Examples of Physical Pendulums

A physical pendulum is any real extended object that oscillates back and forth. The torque about point O is: Substituting into Newton’s second law for rotation gives: The Physical Pendulum

For small angles, this becomes: which is the equation for SHM, with

Conceptual Quiz: A simple pendulum oscillates with a maximum angle to the vertical of 5 o. If the same pendulum is repositioned so that its maximum angle is 7 o, we can say that A) both the period and the energy are unchanged. B) both the period and the energy increase. C) the period is unchanged and the energy increases. D) the period increases and the energy is unchanged. E) none of these is correct.

Answer: C This is a small oscillation, and for small oscillations, the period does not change significantly. The weight moves further up in elevation, and its U increases, so its total energy also increases.

Conceptual Quiz A hole is drilled through the center of Earth and emerges on the other side. You jump into the hole. What happens to you ? A) you fall to the center and stop B) you go all the way through and continue off into space C) you fall to the other side of Earth and then return D) you won’t fall at all

gravity pulls you back toward the centerThis is Simple Harmonic Motion! You fall through the hole. When you reach the center, you keep going because of your inertia. When you reach the other side, gravity pulls you back toward the center. This is Simple Harmonic Motion! Conceptual Quiz A hole is drilled through the center of Earth and emerges on the other side. You jump into the hole. What happens to you ? A) you fall to the center and stop B) you go all the way through and continue off into space C) you fall to the other side of Earth and then return D) you won’t fall at all Follow-up: Where is your acceleration zero?

A mass oscillates in simple harmonic motion with amplitude A. If the mass is doubled, but the amplitude is not changed, what will happen to the total energy of the system? A) total energy will increase B) total energy will not change C) total energy will decrease Conceptual Quiz

A mass oscillates in simple harmonic motion with amplitude A. If the mass is doubled, but the amplitude is not changed, what will happen to the total energy of the system? A) total energy will increase B) total energy will not change V) total energy will decrease The total energy is equal to the initial value of the elastic potential energy, which is PE s = kA 2. This does not depend on mass, so a change in mass will not affect the energy of the system. Conceptual Quiz Follow-up: What happens if you double the amplitude?

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Damped harmonic motion is harmonic motion with a frictional or drag force. If the damping is small, we can treat it as an “envelope” that modifies the undamped oscillation. Damped Harmonic Motion

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. This gives If b is small, a solution of the form will work, with Damped Harmonic Motion

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. If b 2 > 4mk, ω’ becomes imaginary, and the system is overdamped (C). For b 2 = 4mk, the system is critically damped (B) —this is the case in which the system reaches equilibrium in the shortest time. Case A (b 2 < 4mk) is underdamped; it oscillates within the exponential envelope.

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. There are systems in which damping is unwanted, such as clocks and watches. Then there are systems in which it is wanted, and often needs to be as close to critical damping as possible, such as automobile shock absorbers, storm door closures, and earthquake protection for buildings..

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Forced vibrations occur when there is a periodic driving force. This force may or may not have the same period as the natural frequency of the system. If the frequency is the same as the natural frequency, the amplitude can become quite large. This is called resonance. Forced Oscillations; Resonance

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. The equation of motion for a forced oscillator is: The solution is: where and

Show hacksaw blade resonance demo. (Go back and show previous slide.) Do damping and forced oscillation demo. (Go back and show previous slide.) Show Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse. Show Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse

Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. The sharpness of the resonant peak depends on the damping. If the damping is small (A) it can be quite sharp; if the damping is larger (B) it is less sharp. Like damping, resonance can be wanted or unwanted. Musical instruments and TV/radio receivers depend on it.

Human Leg. The human leg can be compared to a physical pendulum, with a “natural” swinging period at which walking is easiest. Consider the leg as two rods joined rigidly together at the knee; the axis for the leg is the hip joint. The length of each rod is about the same, 55 cm. The upper rod has a mass of 7.0 kg and the lower rod has a mass of 4.0 kg. (a) Calculate the natural swinging period of the system. (b) Check your answer by standing on a chair and measuring the time for one or more complete back-and-forth swings. The effect of a shorter leg is a shorter swinging period, enabling a faster “natural” stride.

Unbalanced Tires. An 1150 kg automobile has springs with k = 16,000 N/m. One of the tires is not properly balanced; it has a little extra mass on one side compared to the other, causing the car to shake at certain speeds. If the tire radius is 42 cm, at what speed will the wheel shake most?