Laura Hitchinson
Pendulum Coursework
Aim: To discover what factors effect the rate of a period on a pendulum.
Introduction: Pendulums were discovered by Galileo almost 500 years ago. He did an awful lot of research into pendulums. He also discovered that when pendulums are released they almost, but do not completely return to their release height. Pendulums if left swinging for a while start to turn clockwise if you are in the northern hemisphere of the earth but it is not actually the pendulum that is turning the earth is turning but the pendulum is still moving in the same direction as it always was. Most things to do with pendulums are based around gravity as if you put a pendulum on top of Mount Everest because it is so far off of the ground the gravity is not quite as strong so the pendulum will be swinging for longer.
Method:
- First of all you have to set up your equipment as seen in the diagram below.
- Then decide which variable you are going to do first. Length of string/Weight/Angle of release.
- Whichever you choose to do you start off with your first experiment. If you have chosen to do length of string, start off with the shortest length. If you have chosen to do weight then start off with the lightest weight. If you are doing angle of release start off with the lowest angle.
- You start the experiment by holding the pendulum ready to release it and getting the stopwatch ready.
- Once you let go of the pendulum u start the stopwatch and let the pendulum swing for 10 periods.
- You then stop the stopwatch and divide the number on the stopwatch by 10. This gives an average time for 1 period on your pendulum. Repeat this three times and record your results in your table.
- Then change the length of string/weight/angle of release. Repeat the experiment three times and then change the variable.
- Repeat the above steps until you have completed that variable then move onto the next one and so on.
