This investigation asks the question of what the effect of changing the mass on the period of oscillation of a mass on a spring.

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Introduction

Research Question:

This investigation asks the question of what the effect of changing the mass on the period of oscillation of a mass on a spring.

Independent Variable:

The independent variable is the time for one period of oscillation. The time for five period oscillations will be measured in seconds which will be recorded through the utilisation of a stopwatch.

Dependent Variable:

The dependent variable is the mass that will be added to the spring to investigate its effect on for five period oscillations. Brass weights were used within this practical.

Gathering Data

The time, T, is determined by recording the time after 5 period oscillations of a spring with varied masses attached. The time was recorded when the mass of a spring ‘dipped’ to its 5th trough. Various trials were done for each of the different masses to obtain an average time for one period of oscillation.

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Figure 1 shows the raw data of the mass and the time trials for 5 oscillations.

Figure 1

The original brass weight with mass of 0.05kg, has the uncertainty of . With the addition of each weight after the original, the mass was applied to the mass uncertainty to create a new total uncertainty for the specific mass. Given below in the example calculations are the average time for five oscillations and the uncertainty for the original time measurements.

Example Calculations:

Finding Average Time for five oscillations

s

 

Finding ...

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