pendulum

[greenseeking]

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At what displacement angle during the experiement is the current at maximum strength?

Answer is 0 degrees.

My question is: How come it's not 90 degrees? The passage says that the pendulum's current is at max strength at equilibrium. If you look at the picture, the pendulum passes equilibrium when it's at 90 degrees, not 0 degrees.

 

[ashtonjam]

The angle phi in the picture is a bit misleading, I suppose. Usually, pendulum angles are measured from the vertical by convention. And the equilibrium point of pendula are at the bottom of the swing, so this reasoning makes sense. Don't know why they would define the angle from the horizontal, it seems like a case of saying one thing and meaning another.

By the way, instead of uploading PDFs, you could screencap and upload to imgur.com or directly attach to a post for easier viewing.

 

[greenseeking]

thanks for the tip!