Simple pendulum

Applet by Fu-Kwun Hwang

Instructions:

  1. Set the initial position by clicking and dragging the left mouse button. The horizontal position of the pendulum will follow the mouse. The animation will start once you release the mouse button.
  2. To adjust the length, drag the pointer (while holding down the left button) from the support-point (red dot) to a position that sets the length you want. The animation will start once you release the mouse button
  3. To change gravity, g, click near the tip of the red arrow, and drag the mouse button to change it (up-down).
  4. To change the mass of the bob, click near the bottom of the black stick and drag the mouse button to change it (up-down).

Information displayed:

1. red dots: kinetic energy (K = m v*v /2) of the bob 2. blue dots: potential energy (U = m g h) of the bob. Try to find out the relation between the kinetic energy and the potential energy! 3.black dots (pair) represent the period T of the pendulum.

Move the mouse to the dot in order to display information for that dot in the text field.

Click the show checkbox to show more information.

Blue arrow(1): gravity
Green arrows(2): components of gravity
Red arrow (1): velocity of the bob.

Try to compare the velocity and the tangential component of the gravitational force!