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A pendulum has 894 J of potential energy at the highest point of its swing. How much kinetic energy will it have at the bottom of its swing?

Respuesta :

AL2006

Energy is conserved.  You can't create it and you can't destroy it.  If there's nothing going on here that robs energy from the pendulum**, then it must have the same amount of energy at every point in its swing as it has at every other point.

If it has 894 J of energy at the highest point ... where its energy is all gravitational potential energy, then it must have the same 894 J of energy at the lowest point, where its energy is all kinetic energy.

** Examples of things that could be going on that would rob energy from the pendulum:  

-- air resistance

-- a fly lands on it while it's swinging

--  somebody breathes on it

-- it bumps into something

-- friction at the top pivot

-- etc.

There's ALWAYS something.  If it isn't one thing, then it's something else.  That's why pendulums always stop eventually.