Hello

I am interested in finding out the equation for the period of the broken pendulum. This is a simple pendulum which hits a rod that breaks its swing directly beneath the equilibrium point.

T = pi * sqrt(B/g) + pi * sqrt(L/g) where B is the short length, L is the full length assuming half the swing is at the full length and half at the shorter length

Hey. Could you by any chance explain why that is? In physics terms?

Yes I can!

The "normal" period of a pendulum is


"Half a swing" would be


So the period of a broken pendulum would be


How hard is that?

Can anyone help on the physics theory of the broken pendulum?

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Originally Posted by kittykat12

Can anyone help on the physics theory of the broken pendulum?

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What do you want to know? The previous post did a good job of explaining why the period is what it is, but it assumes you know that the period for a simple pendulum is . If you would like to know why that is - it requires solving the differential equation for a pendulum's motion, which you can get by drawing the free body diagram and considering that F=ma. If you want to see more about how to do this - see:

http://www.physicsclassroom.com/class/waves/u10l0c.cfm