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Re: Inertial vs gravitational mass



The pendulums with which I am familiar do not change period when the
bob mass is changed but rather when the pendulum length is changed.

Let's analyze this assertion.

At this juncture two questions must be asked:
1) How sure are you of this?
2) How do you know this?

I make my assertion on the basis of experimental evidence and it is
therefore as you point out correct to some moderate level of accuracy. I
had not thought about a pendulums oscillations demonstrating the equivalence
principle. I appreciate you pointing that out. I'll enjoy thinking about
that for a while. As far as sorting things out if the period of a pendulum
did depend on its mass, my thinking is that we would have to resort to an
idea that I express to my students every once in a while. Scientific truth
is always decided by experiment except for the occasions when it is not.

Cliff Parker