Question

To understand the relationships of the energetics, forces, acceleration, and velocity of an oscillating pendulum, and to determine how the motion of a pendulum depends on the mass, the length of the string, and the acceleration due to gravity.

For this tutorial, use the PhET simulation Pendulum Lab. This simulation mimics a real pendulum and allows you to adjust the initial position, the mass, and the length of the pendulum.
You can drag the pendulum to an arbitrary initial angle and release it from rest. You can adjust the length and the mass of the pendulum using the slider bars at the top of the green panel. Velocity and acceleration vectors can be selected to be shown, as well as the forms of energy.


H. Keeping the length of the pendulum fixed, determine the period for a few different masses. (Alternatively, you can set up two pendulums by selecting Show 2nd pendulum. Adjust the lengths to be the same, and have one pendulum with a higher mass. You can release one and then release the other, with the same angle, when the first one is back at that angle.) How does the period of the pendulum depend on mass?

Answer 1

The period of a simple pendulum is determined by its string length and the acceleration due to gravity, and is independent of the mass of the pendulum bob.

Step-by-step explanation:

Understanding Pendulum Motion

When using the PhET simulation Pendulum Lab to study the motion of an oscillating pendulum, we can observe that the period of a simple pendulum is independent of the mass of the pendulum bob. The period of a pendulum is determined solely by the length of the string and the acceleration due to gravity. Regardless of how heavy the pendulum bob is, if the string length and gravity remain constant, the oscillation period will not change. This concept is affirmed by the equation for a simple pendulum's period T = 2π√(l/g), where l represents the length of the string and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Therefore, if you keep the length of the pendulum fixed and change the mass of the bob, you will notice that the period remains the same.