Swing Science: How Do You Go Up on Your Swing Set’s Swings?

If you watched Nickelodeon in the 1990s – and boy does it make us feel old to realize ‘90s kids are today’s parents – you might remember a character called Inside Out Boy.

He was a little Claymation character who developed superpowers – and, well, turned inside out – by swinging over the top bar on his swing set.

Of course, this is silly. And not just the turning inside out part. It’s impossible to swing over the top bar of a swing set.

But this got us thinking about the science of swing sets. What keeps us in motion when we swing? How do we get higher? And why can’t we swing over the top bar? Read on to find out.

The science of swinging

Let’s go back to grade school science class and talk for a second about two types of energy:

• Potential energy, which is energy that results from the position from an object.
• Kinetic energy, which results from an object’s motion.

When we swing on a swing set, we’re setting in motion a process that transforms potential energy into kinetic energy, and then kinetic back to potential, and so on.

The speed you pick up as you swing back and forth is kinetic energy. When you reach the top of your arc on the swing, that’s potential energy. The higher you go, the more potential energy you have, and the more potential for speed you have.

How do you go faster?

There are two ways to increase the energy of a swing. When you push someone who’s on the swing, that’s boosting their kinetic energy.

When the person on the swing pumps their legs, that increases the potential energy. When you extend your legs at the top of each swing, you’re also raising your center mass, and in turn increasing the height of the swing.

Every time you pump your legs, you’re burning energy that boosts your swing’s potential energy, and pushing you higher and higher.

Until you eventually swing over the bar, right?

Sorry, but science isn’t on your side here. After a certain height, you’d begin to lose energy as the chain on the swing loosens and tightens again.

The TV show Mythbusters tested the idea on an episode in 2005 and concluded that swinging over the bar is impossible. Three members of the Mythbuster team tried and tried to do what generations of kids have attempted for decades at playgrounds and backyards.

“But harnessing enough rotational centripetal force on your own to overcome gravity's downward pull is simply impossible,” the show wrote on its website. “None of the trio could crest the top of the swing set, much less sail all the way around it. Even a foursome of Hell's Angels, who stepped in at the MythBusters' request, couldn't propel a 65-pound (29.5-kilogram) dummy completely around the circular voyage. “

Now, this isn’t true for swing sets that don’t use chains. There are videos online that show people making 360-degree rotations on swings that are held up on rigid bars. With rigid bars, you’re not dealing with the type of energy loss from the chain loosening and tightening that we mentioned earlier.

And a British science program called Bang Goes the Theory managed to go over the bar on a standard chain swing set, with the help of a jet pack.

So, in short, any story children bring home about a boy or girl who swings over the bars is just an urban legend. That’s bad news for kids, but good news for parents.

Besides, there are still plenty of ways to have fun with a backyard playset. Let Swingset & Toy Warehouse show you how.

Visit us at one of our stores in New Jersey, and we’ll help your kids reach new heights…at the least the ones allowed by the laws of physics.