Question

A pendulum has 294 J of potential energy at the highest point of its swing. How much kinetic energy will it have at the bottom of its swing

Answer 1

Newton's law of conservation states that energy of an isolated system remains a constant. It can neither be created nor destroyed but can be transformed from one form to the other.

Implying the above law of conservation of energy in the case of pendulum we can conclude that at the bottom of the swing the entire potential energy gets converted to kinetic energy. Also the potential energy is zero at this point.

Mathematically also potential energy is represented as

Potential energy= mgh

Where m is the mass of the pendulum.

g is the acceleration due to gravity

h is the height from the bottom z the ground.

At the bottom of the swing,the height is zero, hence the potential energy is also zero.

The kinetic energy is represented mathematically as

Kinetic energy= 1/2 mv^2

Where m is the mass of the pendulum

v is the velocity of the pendulum

At the bottom the pendulum has the maximum velocity. Hence the kinetic energy is maximum at the bottom.

Energy can neither be created e destroyed. It can only be transferred from one form to another. Implying this law and the above explainations we conclude that at the bottom of the pendulum,the potential energy=0 and the kinetic energy=294J as the entire potential energy is converted to kinetic energy at the bottom.