What is the relationship between the amount of kinetic energy of a swinging pendulum at the bottom of its swing and that of a free falling object of the same mass.
To put it another way: If you dropped two heavy weights at the same time, only one of them was tied to a fixed point by a horizontal massless string, what would their conditions be at their mutual lowest point?
Do they have the same speed?
Do they have the same kinetic energy?

This is not actually a homework question. I was just now pondering building a hypothetical machine that would drop a weight, pendulum style, that would simulate different gun recoils. You know, for fun. And, I was thinking of the appropriate force equations to use and I couldn't remember ever have worked something like this in school (maybe I skipped that day). Anyway, I thought it would be fun so I'm sharing. I think this also might be a speed trap for trolls who don't read posts.
Thanks!!
-A-
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