Question

A visitor at a Michigan lighthouse is trying to measure the height of the lighthouse. She has a big spool of string, but she doesn't have a measuring tape. She has a wrist watch with a timer function on it. She attaches a weight to the end of the string and she makes a simple pendulum. She hangs the pendulum down from the top of the spiral staircase and she measures the period of the pendulum. The period of the pendulum is 8.48 s. What is the height of the light house?

Answer 1

The height of the light house is 17.86m.

To find the answer, we have to know about the simple pendulum.

How to find the height of the light house?

• We have the expression for time period of the pendulum as,

                       $T=2\pi \sqrt{\frac{l}{g} }$

where, g is acceleration due to gravity, and l is the length of the pendulum.

• For the pendulum with time period T kept at some height under the influence of gravity, then the height will be equal to,

              $h=(\frac{T}{2\pi }) ^2g=(\frac{8.48}{2*3.14}) ^2*9.8=17.86m$

Thus, we can conclude that, the height of the light house is 17.86m.

Learn more about the simple pendulum here:

brainly.com/question/23269083

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