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A pendulum is a body suspended from a fixed support such that it freely swings back and forth under the influence of gravity. When a pendulum is displaced sideways from its resting, equilibrium position, it is subject to a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back towards the equilibrium position.
The presence of the acceleration of gravity g in the periodicity equation (1) for a pendulum means that the local gravitational acceleration of the Earth can be calculated from the period of a pendulum. A pendulum can therefore be used as a gravimeter to measure the local gravity, which varies by over 0.5% across the surface of the Earth. [107]
The period of a mass attached to a pendulum of length l with gravitational acceleration is given by = This shows that the period of oscillation is independent of the amplitude and mass of the pendulum but not of the acceleration due to gravity, g {\displaystyle g} , therefore a pendulum of the same length on the Moon would swing more slowly due ...
Assuming no damping, the differential equation governing a simple pendulum of length , where is the local acceleration of gravity, is + = If the maximal displacement of the pendulum is small, we can use the approximation sin θ ≈ θ {\displaystyle \sin \theta \approx \theta } and instead consider the equation d 2 θ d t 2 + g l θ = 0 ...
The equation of motion for a particle of constant mass m is Newton's second law of 1687, in modern vector notation =, where a is its acceleration and F the resultant force acting on it. Where the mass is varying, the equation needs to be generalised to take the time derivative of the momentum.
Unprimed quantities refer to position, velocity and acceleration in one frame F; primed quantities refer to position, velocity and acceleration in another frame F' moving at translational velocity V or angular velocity Ω relative to F. Conversely F moves at velocity (—V or —Ω) relative to F'. The situation is similar for relative ...
The SI unit for acceleration is metre per second squared (m⋅s −2, ). For example, when a vehicle starts from a standstill (zero velocity, in an inertial frame of reference) and travels in a straight line at increasing speeds, it is accelerating in the direction of travel. If the vehicle turns, an acceleration occurs toward the new direction ...
a cm is the linear acceleration of the center of mass of the body, m is the mass of the body, α is the angular acceleration of the body, and; I is the moment of inertia of the body about its center of mass. See also Euler's equations (rigid body dynamics).