Question

A scientist recorded the movement of a pendulum for 15 s. The scientist began recording when the pendulum was at its resting position. The pendulum then moved right (positive displacement) and left (negative displacement) several times. The pendulum’s furthest distance to either side was 7 in. The pendulum took 8 s to swing to the right and the left and then return to its resting position.

(a) Write an equation to represent the displacement of the pendulum as a function of time. Show all work and explain how you determined each parameter in the equation.

(b) Graph the function that represents the pendulum’s displacement as a function of
time.

Answer 1

The amplitude is 6

We can use the sine here...I'm assuming that the period is 4 seconds.....so each second is

2pi / 4 = pi/2 rads

So...we have this function

y = 6sin ( pi * t / 2)