On the radiation of the electromagnetic impulse pendulum

Summary

In this paper we clarify the sources of radiation in a number of experiments, concerning the electromagnetic impulse pendulum, carried out by various authors. The calculated radiated energy was found to be negligible, in all cases, compared to the energy stored in their systems, in contradiction to their claim. We elucidate the way by which Newton's third law is applicable and how the reaction force of the moving pendulum is transferred to the stationary frame. In the MIT experiment of Graneauet al., average values for quantities like the time constant, resistance etc. are given ignoring their standard deviations. Calculating and taking into account their errors, due to their dependence on the temperature, we found agreement between the theoretical and experimental values of the pendulum momentum.