Elastic potential energy; The simple pendulum?
Two people are sitting on playground swings. One person is pulled back 4° from the vertical and released, while the other is pulled back 8° from the vertical and released. If the two swings are started together, will they both come back to the starting points at the same time?Justify your answer.
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Verified answer
Since these are both simple pendulums and assuming the two people are identical in mass, they will have teh same period given by
T = sqrt(l/g)/(2*pi)
So they should swing in unison with both people returning to their respective starting points at the same time.