As an example of a physical pendulum we calculate the
period of oscillation for a ``T'' held upside down from its leg. The T is
made from thin sticks of equal length 
m. We first convince
ourselves that the system is in a stable equilibrium and therefore
should be expected to have harmonic oscillations in the
small angle limit. We immediately identify the
system as a ``physical pendulum'' and to calculate the period
of oscillation proceed to calculate the moment of inertia with respect to the pivot point and the distance from the pivot to
the center of mass.
For the moment of inertia we need add moment of inertia for
the various parts of the T: From the leg we get
remembering that the leg and bar of the ``T'' each have a mass
of m/2.
The bar is a distance, 
from the pivot point so using
the parallel axis theorem we get
The total moment of inertia about the pivot point is thus
We also need the distance from pivot to center of mass which is
so finally we get
Putting in numbers we get
