Appendix B: Natural Frequency of Simple Pendulum (Beyond Syllabus)

To derive the pendulum’s period of oscillation, it is best to analyze it as a rotational motion.

We will still be applying N2L, but Instead of force F, inertia m and acceleration a, we have to work with torque $\displaystyle \displaystyle \tau$ , moment of inertia I (a body’s resistance to rotate, which for the pendulum is mL²) and angular acceleration $\displaystyle \displaystyle \ddot{\theta }$ .

$\displaystyle \displaystyle \begin{aligned}{{\tau }_{{net}}}&=\mathrm{I}\ddot{\theta }\\mg\sin \theta \times L&=m{{L}^{2}}\ddot{\theta }\\\ddot{\theta }&=\frac{{g\sin \theta }}{L}\end{aligned}$

If θ is small, we canmake the $\displaystyle \sin \theta \approx \theta$ approximation. (Yes. This means that our formula is valid only for small amplitude oscillations)

$\displaystyle \displaystyle \ddot{\theta }=\frac{g}{L}\theta$

Comparing this with the SHM equation $\displaystyle a=-{{\omega }^{2}}x$ ( $\displaystyle \displaystyle \ddot{\theta }=-{{\omega }^{2}}\theta$ ), we can deduce that

$\displaystyle {{\omega }^{2}}=\frac{g}{L}$

Hence, the natural frequency is $\displaystyle {{f}_{n}}=\frac{1}{{2\pi }}\sqrt{{\frac{g}{L}}}$ and the natural period is $\displaystyle {{T}_{n}}=2\pi \sqrt{{\frac{L}{g}}}$ .

From $\displaystyle \displaystyle {{\omega }^{2}}=\frac{{\ddot{\theta }}}{\theta }$ , we can see that the natural frequency depends on the (angular) acceleration per unit (angular) displacement ratio. A higher g increases the restoring force (torque), whereas a shorter L decreases the (moment of) inertia, both resulting in a higher (angular) acceleration per unit (angular) displacement.

The mass of the pendulum, surprisingly, does not affect the period. This is because the restoring torque $\displaystyle (mg\sin \theta )$ and moment of inertia (mL²) are both proportional to m. So m cancels itself out when it comes to angular acceleration. (This is similar to how all object free fall at g regardless of mass).

Uncategorized

xmPhysics

Appendix B: Natural Frequency of Simple Pendulum (Beyond Syllabus)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Share this:

Like this:

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply