The pumping of a swing from the standing position

American Journal of Physics

Volumn 64, Issue 3, 1996, Pages 215-220

  Case, William B ^a  

^a GRINNELL COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0347933953     PISSN: 00029505     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1119/1.18209     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. W. B. Case and M. A. Swanson, "The pumping of a swing from the seated position," Am. J. Phys. 58, 463-467 (1990).
2. P. L. Tea, Jr. and H. Falk, "Pumping on a swing," Am. J. Phys. 36, 1165-1166 (1968).
3. J. A. Burns, "More on pumping a swing," Am. J. Phys. 38, 920-922 (1970).
4. S. M. Curry, "How children swing," Am. J. Phys. 44, 924-926 (1976).
5. J. Walker, "The amateur scientist," Sci. Am., 106-109 (March 1989).
6. V. I. Arnold, Mathematical Methods of Classical Mechanics (Springer-Verlag, New York, 1989), 2nd ed., p. 114.
7. F. Pinto, "Parametric resonance: an introductory experiment," The Physics Teacher 31, 336-346 (1993).
8. B. F. Gore, "The child's swing," Am. J. Phys. 38, 378-379 (1970).
9. B. F. Gore. "Starting a swing from rest," Am. J. Phys. 39, 347 (1971).
10. J. T. McMullan, "On initiating motion in a swing," Am. J. Phys. 40, 764-766 (1972).
11. This journal's style would dictate that I should avoid using strictly masculine or feminine gender pronouns in this description. Since I am trying to construct a clear distinct image in the reader's mind, I would like to avoid asking the reader to ponder a nebulous person of unidentified gender. Although it certainly makes no difference as far as the physics is concerned, I have chosen one; I will use the masculine pronoun in this paper. This also avoids the very awkward "he/she" or "he or she" usage. For those readers who find this choice offensive I point out that in my earlier paper on the same subject, SW1, the swinger was a woman and the feminine pronoun was used throughout.
12. 0t)y after some approximations. Although this does lead to the same results, the approximations made at this stage make one uneasy.
13. This is identical to the result given in Eq. (11) of J. A. Burns Ref. 3, above. References 2 and 4 give similar results.
14. This can be verified by pulling on both strings simultaneously and attempting to drive the swing. This should be almost impossible.