Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2014/7/solution

Let measure the spoke's displacement from downward equilibrium. The total moment of inertia about the axle is : the rim is a thin thin hoop, and the attached body is a point mass. The rim's weight has no axle torque, while the attached mass gives restoring torque . Hence
Equivalently conservation of energy gives . For small angles, , so the motion is approximately with . The small-amplitude period is
At finite amplitude the nonlinear pendulum equation remains valid but this period approximation does not. The limit recovers a simple pendulum of length .

New to topics? Read the docs here!