You can perform an interesting activity when you visit a park to ride a swing. You will require a watch. Make the swing oscillate without anyone sitting on it. Find its time period in the same way as you did for the pendulum. Make sure that there are no jerks in the motion of the swing. Ask one of your friends to sit on the swing. Push it once and let it swing naturally. Again, measure its time period. Repeat the activity with different persons sitting on the swing. Compare the time period of the swing measured in different cases. What conclusions do you draw from this activity?

Question

You can perform an interesting activity when you visit a park to ride a swing. You will require a watch. Make the swing oscillate without anyone sitting on it. Find its time period in the same way as you did for the pendulum. Make sure that there are no jerks in the motion of the swing. Ask one of your friends to sit on the swing. Push it once and let it swing naturally. Again, measure its time period. Repeat the activity with different persons sitting on the swing. Compare the time period of the swing measured in different cases. What conclusions do you draw from this activity?

Philoid · Accepted Answer

1. Oscillate the swing without any person sitting on it and note down the time period for 5 oscillations.

2. Ask a person to sit on the swing and note down the time for 5 oscillations.

3. Repeat the same for different persons.

4. Calculate the average time taken by dividing to no. of oscillations.

The time period of the swing will be different for different cases. The time period of swing when no one is sitting on it will be least and will depend on the weight of the object sitting on the swing. The higher is the mass of the object on swing, the more will be the time taken by the swing to complete one oscillation because speed becomes less.