SPECIAL FEATURE: ALL THE FUN OF THE FAIR

www.iop.org/journals/physed

The physics of having a swing

Yanqing Ju
College of Equipment and Materials, Liaodong University, Dandong 118003, Peoples Republic of China E-mail: juyanqing@163.com

Abstract To swing higher and higher, a person on a swing stands up and squats down twice for each swing back and forth. These body movements can increase the mechanical energy of the system. The person on the swing stands on the seat and is propelled by an initial force so that he or she can rise higher and higher by body movement alone. How is this done? If we watch people on swings we see that they usually squat down while the swing goes up to its two highest points, and then stand up quickly when the swing descends to its lowest point. What is the physics behind this?

Many children (and some adults!) enjoy using a swing in a playground (gure 1). Children soon learn that they can make the swing go faster by standing up at the right moment. Simple analysis can reveal the best moment in the period of the swing to do this, and can explain the changes in kinetic and potential energy that take place. As shown in gure 2, the person and the swing form a system whose moment of inertia for rotation about the axle is I1 after squatting down and I2 after standing up. Since the centre of mass is closer to the axle while standing rather than squatting, I1 > I2 ; and because it takes very little time for a person to stand up and squat down ( t 0), we can assume that the angular momentum of the system is not changed: I1 1 = I2 2
Figure 1. Having a swing.

(1)

where 1 and 2 are the angular velocities of the swing system before and after a person stands up or squats down. Since I1 > I2 , 2 > 1 . This means that during the movement of the swing, standing up suddenly increases the angular velocity of the swing, but squatting down decreases it. We can now analyse the change in mechanical energy of the system.
534
PHYSICS EDUCATION 40 (6)

Standing up
The change in kinetic energy If the change in kinetic energy caused by standing up suddenly is Ek , and Ek1 and Ek2 are the rotational kinetic energies at the moments just before and after standing up, then
2 2 1 1 Ek = Ek2 Ek1 = 2 I2 2 2 I1 1 .

(2)

0031-9120/05/060534+03$30.00

2005 IOP Publishing Ltd

The physics of having a swing

B I1
1

I2

h hcos A

(a)

(b)

Figure 3. The change in gravitational potential energy.

Figure 2. Changes in moment of inertia. (a) Squatting down. (b) standing up.

The change in mechanical energy Using (1),

1 E k = 2 I2

I1 1 2 1 2 2 I1 1 I2 I 2 I 1 I2 2 = 1 1 . 2I2

(3)

It can be seen from the above analysis that standing up can increase both the kinetic energy and potential energy, so the mechanical energy of the system increases. Because the greater the increase in mechanical energy, the higher the swing will rise, the person on the swing should stand up quickly at the lowest point.

2 Since I1 > I2 > 0, I1 I1 I2 > 0, then Ek 0. This means that if a person stands up during the movement of the swing, the kinetic energy of the system increases; and the greater 1 is (I1 , I2 do not change), the greater is Ek . If the person stands up rapidly at the moment when the angular velocity (1 ) is greatest, the kinetic energy of the system ( Ek ) will increase to its highest level. Hence the reason for standing up rapidly at the lowest point of the swing.

Squatting down
The change in kinetic energy The change in kinetic energy is
2 2 1 1 Ek = 2 I1 1 2 I2 2

Ek , then

I2 2 2 1 2 2 I2 2 I1 I 2 I 1 I2 2 = 2 2 . 2I1
1 = 2 I1

(5)

The change in gravitational potential energy The mass of the person is m. As shown in gure 3, his/her centre of mass is lifted from A to B after standing up, and AB = h (h is a constant for a particular person). The angular displacement is , so the increase in gravitational potential energy (GPE) Ep due to the rise in the centre of mass will be Ep = mgh cos . (4) We can see from this equation that when = 0 (at the lowest point), the increase in GPE will be greatest. Therefore, the person should also stand up at the lowest point from the consideration that the GPE will increase by the greatest amount.
November 2005

2 Since I1 > I2 > 0, I2 I1 I2 < 0, then Ek 0, so this means that squatting down can make the kinetic energy of the system either decrease or remain constant, but can never make it increase! The smaller 2 is, the smaller is Ek . Squatting down rapidly at the moment when the angular velocity (2 ) is at its lowest minimizes the loss in kinetic energy ( Ek ), and this is the reason why people squat down rapidly at the highest point of the swing.

The change in gravitational potential energy The GPE will decrease while squatting down because the centre of mass is lowered. As shown
PHYSICS EDUCATION

535

Yanqing Ju

P M N

Figure 4. The swing will go higher as a result of the body movement of the person on the swing.

Table 1. Some energy changes in the system caused by standing up and squatting down. Optimum position The person stands up The person squats down The lowest point The highest point Change in kinetic energy + Ek 0 Change in GPE + mgh mgh cos Change in mechanical energy + Ek + mgh mgh cos E = + Ek + mgh(1 cos ) The increase in mechanical energy after one standing up and one squatting down

in gure 3, the loss of GPE is Ep = mgh cos . (6)

which means the greater is, the smaller the loss of GPE. Therefore, to minimize this loss the person should also squat down at the highest point. The change in mechanical energy It can be seen from this analysis that squatting down causes a loss in mechanical energy. If we want to minimize this loss, the person on the swing needs to squat down rapidly at the highest point. Table 1 shows some energy changes in the system caused by standing up and squatting down. From table 1 the overall increase after standing up and squatting down is E > 0 (since cos 1), and as the person on the swing repeatedly stands up at the lowest point and squats down at the highest point, the mechanical energy of the system will continue to increase. As shown in gure 4, M is the left-hand highest position of the swing. By standing still on the seat of the swing, the swing sways from M, using energy conservation, and can only sway to the corresponding point N. On the other hand, by
536
PHYSICS EDUCATION

squatting down at M, and standing up rapidly at the lowest point Q, the mechanical energy of the system will increase and the swing will rise to a higher point P. If this is repeated on returning from point P (see gure 4(a)), the swing will reach a higher point than M, and so on. As the mechanical energy of the system increases, so the swing will rise higher and higher (gure 4(b)). It is obvious that the person on the swing has done work in this cycle that results in the increase in mechanical energy.
Received 30 August 2005, in nal form 27 September 2005 doi:10.1088/0031-9120/40/6/001

Further reading
Burns J A 1970 More on pumping a swing Am. J. Phys. 38 9202 Kleppner D and Kolenkow R J 1973 An Introduction to Mechanics (New York: McGraw-Hill) pp 30810

Yanqing Ju is an assistant professor at Liaodong University, where he has been since 1986, having obtained his MS at Liaoning Normal University. His research mainly involves physics experiments and mechanics.

November 2005