New tree climbing language and terms.

In that case, what you've explained or said, "Return Swing" seems to suffice as being descriptive enough for the student to understand the move you want them to perform. Right?
How about, "Return to TIP" then also.

When I hear "pendulum" (which is the first word I thought of) it makes me think of swinging back and forth and back and forth. I think in our case, it would be a swing back, immediately followed by a THUD as you slammed into the trunk!

The tendency for the body to be pulled back to immediately below the TIP is exactly what a plumb-bob does. This would be an appropriate name in this situation.

love
nick

Swinging Hard In Tree

I can see that I'm not the only one who creates acronyms!

We need a physicist here. Is there already a name to describe this idea. possibly? Karina keeps telling me it's just gravity, but gravity is what lets you fall down. There's a little more than JUST gravity here.

Are there any good physics sites that you know of? I can't find any.

love
nick

When a mass on the end of the pendulum is at rest directly below the TIP, it is considered at equiplibrium. Maybe that term may be used here, too.

love
nick

A body suspended from a fixed support so that it swings freely back and forth under the influence of gravity, commonly used to regulate various devices, especially clocks. Also called simple pendulum.

so: return arc of penduliam to equilibrium in search of equalization of motion under the influence of gravity

or the tarzan effect

For efficiency of communication "return swing" works for me. "Trunk swing" might be used to be more explicit about the potential result of the swing, such as "Be careful you're about to make a trunk swing!"
-moss

Nick—

Karina is correct: It’s just gravity.

You’re right, too, that there is a “little more.” Specifically, gravity is pulling “straight down” on you; your rope is pulling up on you, but not “straight up.” This causes an unbalanced force that has to be resolved, best understood by the “parallelogram of forces.”

That resultant force does what Mr. Newton suggested with
F=ma
(force = mass x acceleration). The force in the equation is that resultant unbalanced force just described; you’re the mass; and so your body accelerates.

When your body accelerates, it must change position, so that changes the vector of the unbalanced force, which changes the acceleration, which changes your position, which changes the force . . . .

You get the idea.

That’s a "simple pendulum" (also called a “bob pendulum,” if my memory serves me correctly). Actually, in your case, I guess it would be a “nick pendulum.”

If you know something about that kind of stuff, you probably understood what I said. If you didn’t already know something about it, maybe someday we’ll meet and I can wave my arms in the proper way to explain it.

I’ll look for a site that explains it and let you know if I find something.

I’m sure everyone is chomping at the bit to have a deep mathematical understanding of this one!

For simplicity sake I'll second "Trunk Swing".
Afterall you can't hollar out to a student to watch out for the "Equiplibrium Pendulum Effect"!! -haha.

Trunk swing makes sense. I like it.

Some times I look for trunk swings that won't allow me to slam into the trunk. Nothing but a fun swing!

love
nick

"Trunk swing" doesn't work if your TIP is not at the trunk (it would not be unusual for the TIP not to be at or very near the trunk).

Seriously, folks (my "humor" apparently didn't work), do we really have to have a name for everything?

When you are not directly under your TIP, the laws of physics are going to move you in a known manner when you "let loose."

I'm interested in specific examples of just how the command (or announcement) "return swing" or "trunk swing" or even "swing" would be used. Would we tell a student, "return swing” when we wanted him/her to release his/her grip on a branch so he/she would swing back underneath his/her TIP? If that’s the case, why not just say, “Let loose.”

What am I missing here?

Seems like underlying some of this discussion is the issue of how hard you hit the trunk when you do a trunk swing. It really does just depend on gravity. There are two heights: the height your center of gravity is at when you start the swing, and the height your center of gravity is at when you are exactly below the TIP, which is often roughly the location of the "thud". All gravity cares about is how big a difference in height that is.

The speed with which you "thud" on the trunk is exactly the same as the speed with which you'd hit the ground jumping off of something as tall as that difference in height. In the tree (courtesy of the rope) the speed is horizontal, on the ground the speed is vertical. In both cases, you want to absorb the energy with your legs - rather than some other part of your body like I usually do.

Return Swing-swing back
Still favor the active verb (Return) noun (Swing) relationship of this term, though swing back has a ring. As JimW observed, the return swing may not at all involve the trunk.

Building on the term;
Controlled return swing- using the rope to let your self back all of the way to the TIP- anchor point.

Partially controlled return swing- letting your self back part of the way with a rope/lanyard to then let go for a less harmful swing.

Uncontrolled return swing- no control what so ever on letting yourself back to the anchor point. It could end with a thud or something else could happen, possibly fancy foot work or luck.

Sounds great!--Especially with the ability to build on the term.
I think also as a new term, sort of as a warning, we should coin the phrase,
"Trunk Slam". This could be used to warn a student, for instance that an uncontrolled return swing(although not necessarily the same thing) could result in a "Trunk Slam". (Not to be confused with a Denny's "Grand Slam" breakfast -haha)