Finding the angle in a Uniform Circular Motion problem?

[daniiela]

1. Alright say you have a simple pendulum with given mass, length, and velocity (I think.. correct me if I'm wrong) ... how would I go about calculating theta (in degrees)?



2. I'm assuming the quadratic eq will have to be used? Among a couple of the simple force formulas.



3. I just took a test with this on it and I was prepared to calculate the velocity with a given angle. Boy was I surprised to see no angle and one of the first questions was to calculate it.


Dieing to figure it out.. I obviously can't go back and fix what I did on the test but atleast I can feel confident knowing if I ever see this problem or something similar to it I will know what to do. =)

 

[cepheid]

Welcome to PF,

Hmm. So I guess you cannot give us the exact problem statement because you do not have it in front of you. That's really too bad because it's not totally clear what the question is asking. I mean the pendulum is swinging, right? So the angle of the pendulum changes depending upon when you look. We say that theta is a function of time. I know a method that can be used to figure out the expression for theta vs. time, but I suspect that is a bit advanced for the level at which you are studying physics.

If the question is, at what angle was the pendulum released, then I think you can figure that out provided that the velocity you have been given is the maximum velocity. Is that what is going on here?