Definition:Pendulum

Definition

A pendulum is a body mounted so as to swing freely about a fixed point under the influence of gravity.

Simple Pendulum

A simple pendulum is an ideal body consisting of two parts:

$(1): \quad$ a rod attached at one end to a pivot

$(2): \quad$ a point mass at the other end of the rod

embedded in a gravitational field.

Compound Pendulum

A compound pendulum is a rigid body $B$ which swings about a horizontal pivot that passes through $B$, but not through its center of mass.

Also see

• Results about pendulums can be found here.

Linguistic Note

The word pendulum is a neo-Latin word, deriving from the Latin pendulus, meaning hanging.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): pendulum
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): pendulum