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Why would changing the length of something change the amount of time for it to swing?
Imagine a pendulum, if you will. The longer a pendulum is, the longer it will take to make a full cycle. The converse is also true; if a pendulum is shorter, it will take less time to make a full cycle. The answer lies in the gravitational potential energy of the system, and the moment of inertia of the pendulum. Given a fixed mass at the end of a string with negligible mass, it is apparent that the longer the string is, the greater its moment of inertia (inertial moment is roughly analogous to the inertia of a stationary object). With only a fixed amount of gravitational potential energy to drive the pendulum, the one with a larger moment of inertia will travel slower.
Why does a pendulum in motion never swing to a greater height than it started?
This is a conservation of energy problem. When the pendulum starts out, it has gravitational potential energy; at the bottom of the swing, all of that has been converted to kinetic energy, and when it swings back up, back to gravitational potential energy (which is why speed is greatest at the bottom of the pendulum); in other words, there has to be the same amount of energy (PEgravitational = mass*gravity*height), where mass and gravity are constant.
Is gravitational potential a scalal or vecror quantity?
Gravitational potential is a scalar quantity. It represents the amount of energy per unit mass at a point in a gravitational field. When considering gravitational potential, only the magnitude of the potential is important, not its direction.
When does the amount of gravitational potential change?
When you go up or down.
What is the law of gravitational potential energy?
Gravitational energy is the potential energy associated with gravitational force. If an object falls from one point to another point inside a gravitational field, the force of gravity will do positive work on the object, and the gravitational potential energy will decrease by the same amount.
What is the maximum amount of energy the mass can change from gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy?
The maximum energy conversion from gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy occurs when all of the initial potential energy of the mass is converted to kinetic energy. This means that the maximum amount of energy the mass can change from gravitational potential energy to kinetic energy is equal to the initial potential energy of the mass.
What factors affect the amount of gravitational potential energy?
Mass, gravity, height.
Will mass affect the amount of gravitational potential energy?
Yes. Mass is one of the variables (mass, gravity and height) for which gravitational potential energy is the product (meaning the multiplication of), so increasing mass will increase the gravitational potential energy in direct proportion.
Where is the potential energy in a pendulum?
A pendulum swings back and forth with a period based on its length. When it is pointing directly down, moving horizontally with maximum speed, there is no potential energy; all the energy is kinetic. When it is maximally away from this position it has stopped and so has no kinetic energy; all the energy is potential. Thus at any one time there is the same amount of energy in a swinging pendulum but depending on where it is in its arc of motion there will be different amounts of kinetic and potential energy.
During the swing of a frictionless pendulum what energy forms remain constant?
In a frictionless pendulum, the total mechanical energy (the sum of potential and kinetic energy) remains constant. This means that as the pendulum swings back and forth, the energy is continuously exchanged between potential and kinetic energy, but the total amount of energy remains the same.
When does an object have gravitational potential energy?
Well gravitational potential energy is potential energy that depends on the height of an object so an object would have gravitational potential energy when ever it's of the ground or at a high height (it doesn't have to be very high) for example if you lift up a ball it has the potential to fall or if your climbing a mountain you have gravitational potential energy.
What will affect the amount of gravitational potential energy?
The mass, height and the force of gravity at the location.
