How To Pump A Swing
How to Pump a Swing
Authors: Wirkus, Steven, Richard Rand, and Andy Ruina
College Mathematics Journal, Vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 266-275, 1998.
The authors model a playground swing as a slightly elaborated simple pendulum. The term pumping is used to describe a repeated change in the rider's position and/or orientation relative to the suspending rope or rod. Pumping can gradually increase the amplitude of the swinging.