Physical Pendulum Calculator

Find the swing period of a physical (rigid) pendulum.

Moment of inertia (kg·m²)

Mass

Pivot-to-CoM distance

Gravity (m/s²)

Period 1.831

Formula: T = 2π·√(I ÷ (m·g·d))

Step-by-step with your numbers:

1. Values used:

2. Moment of inertia = 0.5 kg·m²

3. Mass = 2

4. Pivot-to-CoM distance = 0.3

5. Gravity = 9.81 m/s²

7. Period = 1.831

Did we solve your problem today?

A physical pendulum is any rigid body swinging about a pivot, not just a point mass on a string.

The math behind it

T = 2π·√(I ÷ (m·g·d)), where I is the moment of inertia about the pivot and d is the distance to the center of mass.

I = 0.5, m = 2, d = 0.3 → period ≈ 1.84 s.

How is this different from a simple pendulum?

A simple pendulum is the special case of a point mass, where I = mL².