A shorter pendulum will make more swings per second. Or per minute. Or whatever.
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Since the period of a simple pendulum (for short swings) in proportional to the square root of its length, then making the length one quarter of its original length would make the period one half of its original period.Periodapproximately = 2 pi square root (length/acceleration due to gravity)
the period T of a rigid-body compound pendulum for small angles is given byT=2π√I/mgRwhere I is the moment of inertia of the pendulum about the pivot point, m is the mass of the pendulum, and R is the distance between the pivot point and the center of mass of the pendulum.For example, for a pendulum made of a rigid uniform rod of length L pivoted at its end, I = (1/3)mL2. The center of mass is located in the center of the rod, so R = L/2. Substituting these values into the above equation gives T = 2π√2L/3g. This shows that a rigid rod pendulum has the same period as a simple pendulum of 2/3 its length.
In the standard derivation of pendulum characteristics, at least through high schooland undergraduate Physics, an approximation is always made that assumes a smallangular displacement.With that assumption, the angular displacement doesn't appear in the formula forthe period, i.e. the period depends on the pendulum's effective length, and isindependent of the angular displacement.
Pendulums have been used for thousands of years as a time keeping device in various civilizations. Assuming that it is only displaced by a small angle, a pendulum wall have a period of 2pi*√(L/g) where L is the length of the pendulum and g is the acceeleration due to gravity, normally 9.81m/s². One of the cool things about pendulums is that if one is made with a length of one meter, it will have a period of 2.00607 seconds, meaning it will take just slightly more than one second to swing from one side to another.
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