Question

A child is playing on a swing. As long as he does not swing too high the time it takes him to complete one full oscillation will be independent of

Answer 1

We know that for a pendulum of length L, the period (time for a complete swing) is defined as:

T = 2*pi*√(L/g)

where:

pi = 3.14

L = length of the pendulum

g = gravitational acceleration = 9.8 m/s^2

Now, we can think on the swing as a pendulum, where the child is the mass of the pendulum.

Then the period is independent of:

The mass of the child

The initial angle

Where the restriction of not swing to high is because this model works for small angles, and when the swing is to high the problem becomes more complex.