Question

A pendulum swinging back and forth loses momentum and distance with each oscillation. The total distance the pendulum swings on the first oscillation is 12 inches, and the distance of each consecutive oscillation is 2/3 of the previous distance. What distance will the pendulum travel on the fifth oscillation, measured to the nearest whole inch?

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

To find the distance the pendulum will travel on the fifth oscillation, we need to find the distances for each of the five oscillations:

1st oscillation: 12 inches
2nd oscillation: (2/3) * 12 = 8 inches
3rd oscillation: (2/3) * 8 = 16/3 ≈ 5.33 inches
4th oscillation: (2/3) * 16/3 ≈ 3.56 inches
5th oscillation: (2/3) * 3.56 ≈ 2.37 inches

Rounded to the nearest whole inch, the pendulum will travel 2 inches on the fifth oscillation.