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Amusement park physics

Is a 360 degree rotation vertical pendulum a simple harmonic motion. Also, it has a rotating gondola.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMPjqNTKCI
Original post by Sandra583
Is a 360 degree rotation vertical pendulum a simple harmonic motion. Also, it has a rotating gondola.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdMPjqNTKCI

It's unlikely to be pure SHM as it is acted on by a driving force (to gain height) and a braking force to stop it.

The whole ride (including people and gondola) if it was just displaced no more than about 10 degrees to one side, and allowed to swing under its own weight with no brake or motor, would probably get close to SHM. In the lab you can show this by suspending and pivoting a meter rule at, say, the 40 cm mark, sticking some BluTak on the end, and letting it swing.
No

pendulums are very close to SHM when the pendulum is swinging through a small angle and there's very little external force on the system


one oscillation of that ride occurs between 28s and 40s in the video (quite a small angle) i.e. T=12s

when the angle is larger
1:33 - 1:51 i.e. T=18s

also there's a motor putting energy in (i.e. applying force)

IMO that thing looks like a pendulum but it might not even be a proper pendulum at all - there'd be advantages to counterweighting the opposite side so that both sides balance... like a Ferris wheel. The swinging backwards and forwards might just be to make the guests feel a rising sense of excitement (see picture)

Spincycle081020.JPG

There's a type of swinging ride called a pirate ship that doesn't have any mysterious piece sticking out on the opposite side of the axle... see other picture



So the mystery piece on spincycle must be there for some reason mustn't it?

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