system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
While the period of a pendulum is not affected by its mass, would it be affected by changes in the distribution of mass up and down the pendulum due to rotational inertia?
gpt
The period of a pendulum is affected by its length. Redistributing the mass at the end of the string changes this length. An intuitive example is sliding a weight up and down the string. The tension will act from the centre of mass of this object (the string below it will be slack) so as you re arrange the mass the effective length of the pendulum will change and hence its period will also.