The period or frequency of the pendulum
Keeping the amplitude of the swinging pendulum small is important to maintain the regularity and predictability of its motion. Large amplitudes can introduce non-linearities that impact the period of oscillation and make the pendulum less reliable for timekeeping or measurement purposes. Additionally, larger amplitudes can result in higher energy loss due to air resistance or friction, leading to dampening of the pendulum's motion.
Small: This is to ensure that the motion of the pendulum mostly stays along one direction, i.e. it is swinging back and forth as opposed to rotating or moving erratically. Only when the pendulum is moving in this manner can you say that it follows SHM - Simple Harmonic Motion (If that is the aim of the experiment)
The motion of the simple pendulum will be in simple harmonic if it is in oscillation.
Assuming an idealised pendulum with a small amplitude, both are examples of simple harmonic motion. That is, the second derivative of the curve is directly proportional to its displacement but in the opposite direction. If the amplitude (swing) of the pendulum is large or if the majority of its mass is not oi the "blob" the relationship is only approximate.
The six basic types of motion are linear motion (straight-line motion), circular motion (rotation along a curve), reciprocating motion (back-and-forth motion), oscillating motion (repetitive swinging motion), vibratory motion (small rapid movements), and random motion (irregular movement in all directions).
A simple pendulum undergoes simple harmonic motion only for small amplitudes because for small amplitudes the motion almost reduces to a straight line motion. Simple harmonic motion means motion on a straight not on curves
A simple harmonic motion is one for which the acceleration of the body into consideration is proportional its displacement from the mean position and the direction of the acceleration is always directed towards that mean position. It can be shown that, provided that the amplitude of oscillation is small, the motion of a simple pendulum is simple harmonic. All simple harmonic motions follow one rule F=-kx . When the oscillation is small(around 5 °), the motion of simple pendulum is simple harmonic motion.
A pendulum can swing through any angle you want. But because of the mathematical approximations you make when you analyze the motion of the pendulum, your predictions are only accurate for a pendulum with a small arc.
No. The pendulum will slow down by drag from air molecules until the motion becomes exactly the same as random motion caused by the air molecules. But I know what you are looking for-- "Isn't there some tiny detectable motion, even if you can't see it?" Let's look at a hanging pendulum that has NEVER been swung. If we tape a tiny mirror to it and bounce a laser beam off it, we will see a spot on the wall that vibrates from thermal (and ignoring environmental) noise. The average motion will NOT be zero in any finite time. BUT the average motion of the pendulum caused by noise will ALWAYS have some positive value depending on temperature (well, okay...zero at absolute zero). When the original swinging pendulum's motion equals the motion caused by random thermal noise, then the motion is ZERO. So it's a much better question than you might have thought! Quantum Mechanically the problem is even more interesting, since there is a small but finite possibility that the pendulum will launch itself into orbit without warning, but it all depends on statistics.
The pendulum in a grandfather clock swings back and forth due to the force of gravity. When the pendulum is pushed to one side, gravity pulls it back towards the center. The swinging motion continues because of this repeated force from gravity.
A simple pendulum, ideally consists of a large mass suspended from a fixed point by an inelastic light string. These ensure that the length of the pendulum from the point of suspension to its centre of mass is constant. If the pendulum is given a small initial displacement, it undergoes simple harmonic motion (SHM). Such motion is periodic, that is, the time period for oscillations are the same.
The period of a simple pendulum swinging at a small angle is approximately 2*pi*Sqrt(L/g), where L is the length of the pendulum, and g is acceleration due to gravity. Since gravity on the moon is approximately 1/6 of Earth's gravity, the period of a pendulum on the moon with the same length will be approximately 2.45 times of the same pendulum on the Earth (that's square root of 6).