Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

Period of a Pendulum

Extracts from this document...

Introduction

PRACTICAL INVESTIGATION: THE SIMPLE PENDULUM

AIM:

The aim is to investigate the factors which affect the period of oscillation of a simple pendulum.

THEORY:

Over 400 years ago, Galileo came up with the theory that the period of a pendulum depends only on the length of the pendulum. A simple pendulum consists of a weight hanging off a string. When the bob is stationary, the two forces acting upon the bob – the tension of the string and gravity – equalise and gives the bob an overall force of 0N. However, when the bob is in motion, the forces are unbalanced and the bob swings back and forth. If the amplitude of the string is increased, the weight will swing back and forth at a regular period. However, if the amplitude of the swing is increased too much, this may cause the weight to bounce and the period of a pendulum may be void. The period of a pendulum is the time for one complete swing. The equation for the period of a pendulum is

T =image00.pngimage00.png

where ‘L’ is the length of the pendulum, ‘g’ is the acceleration due to gravity and ‘T’ is the period of a pendulum. However, when doing a practical, the period of a pendulum can be determined by measuring the time a pendulum takes to swing twenty periods and dividing the results by twenty.

HYPOTHESIS:

...read more.

Middle

24.69

23.41

23.87 + 0.82s

1.19 + 0.82s

Length = 32 + 0.2cm, mass = 99.89g + 0.01g

Amplitude of Swing vs Time of a Pendulum

Time for 20 swings (s)

Amplitude of Swing (cm) + 0.2cm

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Average

Period of motion (s)

4

23.16

23.59

23.43

23.39 + 0.23s

1.17 + 0.23s

6

23.57

23.28

22.63

23.16 + 0.53s

1.16 + 0.53s

8

21.69

23.59

23.97

23.08 + 1.39s

1.15 + 1.39s

10

23.75

23.69

24.00

23.81  + 0.19s

1.19 + 0.19s

Amplitude = 6+0.2cm, mass = 99.89 + 0.01g

Length of String vs Time of a Pendulum

Time for 20 swings (s)

Full Length (cm) + 0.

...read more.

Conclusion

Again, drawing conclusions from this experiment, it can be seen that the amplitude of the swing does not affect the period of a pendulum. Although there are varying results, no definite conclusion can be draw from the data.

This experiment also shows the length of a pendulum does affect the period of a pendulum. Also, it shows that the relationship between the square root of the length and the period of a pendulum is linear and proportional. This conclusion is very accurate as all the points lie on the line of best fit. The proves that Galileo’s theory was partly correct when he predicted that only the period of a pendulum was only dependent on the length of the pendulum and not on the mass of the pendulum or the amplitude of the swing. This also proves the hypothesis was partially correct when it states that the factor that will greatly affect the period of the pendulum was the length of the pendulum. The part that both theories failed to recognise was that the period of a pendulum was dependent on the square root of length and not the length. This experiment investigated the factors which affect the period of oscillation of a simple pendulum.

Sources:

http://www.8886.co.uk/pendex1.htm

http://cc.ysu.edu/physics-astro/Report.PDF

...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our International Baccalaureate Physics section.

Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

or


Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related International Baccalaureate Physics essays

  1. Aim: To investigate the factors that affect the period of oscillation of a simple ...

    Another simple device besides the spring-mass that can produce simple harmonic motion is the simple pendulum. A simple pendulum consists merely of a point-mass (m) suspended from a fixed point by a rod or string of length (L). The mass of the rod or string is assumed to be so

  2. Determining acceleration of free fall by of a simple pendulum.

    Percentage discrepancy = 10.03 - 9.81 x 100 = 2.24 % 9.81 % 97.76 = 2.24 - 100 = ccuracya gePercenta In my experiment I expected the time of the oscillations to decrease as the pendulum length is decreased, my data supported this.

  1. Physics Pendulum Internal assesment

    to L then that works out to be the gradient so if we put that into the formula we get: and doing this calculation we get g to be 9.21 (3s.f) Evaluation During the experiment I didn't come across any major issues with the way the experiment was done, however

  2. Investigate the factors affecting the period of a double string pendulum

    of the oscillations of the metal bar, I need to ensure through certain measures that the other four variables are kept constant all throughout the experiment to establish a reasonable, accurate and precise analysis. These will be my controlled variables. Below is a list of the measures I will take.

  1. Simple pendulum lab. In this experiment, the length of the string will be ...

    = 12.7 % Error Conclusion Overall, the experiment was carried out with minimum errors and was followed according to the given procedure. There were eight data points with three trials each. The investigation was related to the determination of one factor that affects the motion of a simple pendulum followed by the determination of the value of gravity.

  2. Analyzing Uniform Circular Motion

    and the same method was applied to figure out the f2 value. Data Table # 6: Frequency for Manipulating Spinning Mass (ms) Spinning Mass (�0.00001 kg) Frequency (Hz) Uncertainty (�) 0.014 2.30 0.005 2.11 0.004 0.020 1.81 0.003 1.88 0.004 0.028 1.61 0.003 1.63 0.003 0.034 1.53 0.002 1.49

  1. Lab Report - obtain the frequency of the simple pendulum and to analyze the ...

    Formula used: T = 2pi (L/g) ^1/2 Effect of Change in Length on the Frequency: As we know that frequency is reciprocal of the time period, so formula for frequency is: f = 1/2pi (g/L) ^1/2 We can see that frequency is inversely proportional to the length of the string so if we increase the length

  2. Investigating the Oscillations of an Obstructed Pendulum

    There were definitely some sources of error, and these would definitely have had an effect on the results. These include both systematic and random errors. As can be seen from the graph on the previous page, not all the readings lie on the line of best-fit; some of the results lie on either side of the line.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work