Fun in the Sky: 1.

Mass: Mass would not affect the swing set because swing sets are like pendulum, in which Potential Energy (starting point) will be transformed into Kinetic Energy repeatedly. As we learned PE = KE and basing it on the formulas: PE = KE m x g x h = mv2 2 Since Mass is present in both formulas, it can be cancelled out therefore proving that mass does not influence the rate of the swing. m x g x h = mv2 2 ** The mass of the bob does not affect the period of a pendulum because (as Galileo discovered and Newton explained), the mass of the bob is being accelerated toward the ground at a constant rate the gravitational constant, g. Just as objects with different masses but similar shapes fall at the same rate (for example, a ping-pong ball and a golf ball, or a grape and a large ball bearing), the pendulum is pulled downward at the same rate no matter how much the bob weighs. ** additional explanation 2. Angle: Higher Angle: High Potential Energy = Faster Kinetic Energy although it would move faster as a result of higher angle, the swing would also need to travel farther distance. Therefore, it would even out a swing with lower angle.

Lower Angle: Low Potential Energy = Slower Kinetic Energy as it moves slower compared with a higher angle, the swing would also need to travel shorter distance. Therefore, it would still have the same rate as the one with a higher angle. ** the angle that the pendulum swings through (a big swing or a small swing) does not affect the period of the pendulum because pendulums swinging through a larger angle accelerate more than pendulums swinging through a small angle. This is because of the way objects fall; when something is falling, it keeps accelerating. As long as an object is not going as fast as it can, it is speeding up. Therefore, something that has been falling longer will be going faster than something that has just been released. A pendulum swinging through a large angle is being pulled down by gravity for a longer part of its swing than a pendulum swinging through a small angle, so it speeds up more, covering the larger distance of its big swing in the same amount of time as the pendulum swinging through a small angle covers its shorter distance traveled. 3. Length:
The length of the pendulum determines the length of the pendulums path during its swing.

Therefore, the length of a pendulum while keeping other factors constant changes
the swing rate of the pendulum. Longer pendulums swing with a lower velocity than shorter pendulums and they also have to cover longer distance, thus having a longer swing rates. ** When a pendulum's string is shorter, the pendulum must travel with a higher velocity but with shorter distance. A pendulum on a short string swings faster than a pendulum on a long string for the same reason that an ice skater spins faster when the skater pulls his/her arms in close to his/her body