A child swinging on a swing stands up. Then the time period of the swing will ___________
A. Increase
B. Decrease
C. Remain the same
D. Increase, if the child is long and decreases if the child is short
I got this question in a national level competition.
My doubt stems from Harmonic Motion topic in portion Oscillations of Engineering Physics I
Right option is B. Decrease
For explanation I would say: The child and the swing together constitute a pendulum of a time period,
Tâ2Ïâ(l/g)
As the girl stands up, her centre of gravity is raised. The distance between the point of suspension and the centre of gravity decreases, that is the length l decreases. Hence the time period T decreases.