Physical pendulum - accuracy above all

Oscillations are one of the most common types of mechanical motion. The most obvious example is the oscillations that the physical pendulum performs. This is a heavy body attached to a thread at one point. By removing the pendulum from the position of equilibrium and releasing it, we allow it to fall, but the fall is not accomplished freely, but along a trajectory equal to the length of the string.

Here one can observe the process of transformation of potential energy into kinetic energy and vice versa. Rejecting the physical pendulum, we give him potential energy. Then, when it is released, it starts moving, and when it returns to the equilibrium point, its speed will be maximum. In the process of downward motion, a part of the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy. Further, moving by inertia, the body rises higher and higher, until at some point the motion stops. Here the kinetic energy is transformed again into a potential one.

Then the pendulum starts moving in the opposite direction, and everything repeats. Thus, we see that the physical pendulum oscillates due to the transitions of the potential energy to kinetic energy, and then back. Time spent on all fluctuations, i.e. Then, during which the body, having left from any point of its trajectory, will return there again, is called the period of oscillations. The greatest deviation from the equilibrium point of the pendulum is called the amplitude of the oscillation.

Studying the oscillations, the scientists established that the period of the physical pendulum with which it oscillates is in no way connected with the mass of the pendulum and is determined only by the length of the filament and the value of the acceleration of gravity. The occurrence of vibration is possible in the case when the load is fixed to the spring. In this case, there is a transition of the potential energy of the compressed spring into kinetic energy of the cargo movement and vice versa.

The vibrations that a physical pendulum or load on a spring performs, if no additional forces are present, are called free or intrinsic. If on them any external influence occurs, then such oscillations are called forced. When the external additional periodic force is applied for a long time, the pendulum begins to oscillate with the frequency of this force. With such an effect, the appearance of such a phenomenon as resonance is possible.

Working with a pendulum is extremely interesting and can help in solving many problems. It is enough to recall Foucault's pendulum, thanks to which it was possible to prove that the Earth rotates. In this experiment, the motion of the pendulum was observed. For this, a cargo suspended on a wire of 67 meters in length was used. According to the plan, only the force of gravity of the Earth and the tension of the wire acted on the pendulum. As a result, the oscillations were to occur only in the vertical plane.

On the floor was a pile of sand and a pendulum with its sharp end while moving left its mark on it. It turned out that the movement is not only in the vertical plane, but there is also a horizontal component. With each motion of the pendulum, the deviation was about three millimeters from the previous trajectory, in an hour the plane in which the pendulum oscillations occurred turned by eleven degrees.

We can also recall the use of a pendulum in a clock, based on a constant period of its oscillations. This period depends only on the length of the pendulum. The accuracy of such watches can reach a considerable value. In 1954 the Soviet engineer Fedchenko created a pendulum clock, the accuracy of which was 0.0003 s per day.

That's roughly how you can describe what a physical pendulum is, its properties and parameters, and the possibilities for its use in science and technology.