Apendulum swings an arc with a length equal to 15 meters. each subsequent swing is 95% of the previous swing.

a) how far with the pendulum travel on its 6th swing?

b) how far will the pendulum swing before it essentially stops? hint: this is an infinite geometric series.

show all work and explain your reasoning.

The answers for your two questions are the following

a)11.606 m

b) As the number of swings approaches infinity

Step-by-step explanation:

We are dealing with an exponential equation  series, where the length of  each swing can be represented as

l = [ 15 *(0.95)^(n-1) ]

n is the corresponding number of the swing.

So, for the first swing, n = 1

[ 15 *(0.95)^(1-1) ] = 15 m

a) How far with the pendulum travel on its 6th swing?

We just need to evaluate the previous formula for n = 6

[ 15 *(0.95)^(6-1) ] =

[ 15 *(0.95)^(5) ] =

[ 15 *(0.7737) ] =

[ 15 *(0.7737) ] = 11.606 m

b) How far will the pendulum swing before it essentially stops? Hint: This is an infinite geometric series.

We previously stated that the length of the arc of each swing can be represented as

l(n)  = [ 15 *(0.95)^(n-1) ]       ,      for n>=1

Since the function approaches zero if and only if n approaches infinity, we can say that the pendulum never stops.

Of course, this only happens mathematically, we can always fin a threshold for which the movement cannot be registered anymore.

Please see attached graph for a representation of the function

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