What is a pendulum?

A pendulum is an apparatus that consist of an object mounted 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. It is from the Latin word pendulus, which means hanging, literately that is what it does.

What use do pendulums have?

Pendulums are used to tell the time some times on clocks like a grandfather clock because they keep at a steady rate of seconds, although it has to be reset every now and them. They are also used as metronomes to keep a steady pulse or beat for a practising musician. Pendulums are even used as demolishing buildings as they swing a weight into a wall.

What did Galileo find out about pendulums?

Galileo did experiments with pendulums (weights attached to the ends of strings). When he was only 20, Galileo noticed a lamp swinging overhead while he was in a cathedral. Curious to find out how long it took the lamp to swing back and forth, he used his pulse to time large and small swings. Galileo discovered something that no one else had ever realized: the period of each swing was exactly the same. The law of the pendulum, which would eventually be used to regulate clocks, made Galileo instantly famous. He had proved wrong many clever and well-thought theories before him like Aristotle in the third century.

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What do these words mean?

Time period- This is the length or amount of space between one point to another

Frequency- this is the number of times a specific period, action or thing occurs with an independent variable.

Oscillates- To swing back and forth with a steady and uninterrupted rhythm.

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What do these words mean?

Time period- This is the length or amount of space between one point to another

Frequency- this is the number of times a specific period, action or thing occurs with an independent variable.

Oscillates- To swing back and forth with a steady and uninterrupted rhythm.

Pendulums have been used to make accurate clocks since 1656, and they have not changed dramatically since then. Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch scientist, is credited with making the first pendulum clock. Pendulums are useful because they have an extremely interesting property. The period (the amount of time it takes for a pendulum to go back and forth once) of a pendulum's swing is related only to the length of the pendulum and the acceleration of gravity. Since gravity is constant at any given spot on the planet, the only thing that affects the period of a pendulum is the length of the pendulum. The amount of weight does not matter. Nor does the length of the arc that the pendulum swings through. Only the length of the pendulum matters. The formula relating the period (T) of a pendulum to its length (L) and the acceleration of gravity (g) is:

What is a pendulum?

A gravity pendulum is a weight on the end of a rigid rod, which, when given some initial lift from the vertical position, will swing back and forth under the influence of gravity over its central (lowest) point. A torsion pendulum consists of a body suspended by a fine wire or elastic fibre in such a way that it executes rotational oscillations as the suspending wire or fibre twists and untwists.

What uses do pendulums have?

Pendulums can be used to;

Keep time

To measure the strength of earthquakes

What did Galileo find out about pendulums?

Galileo Galilee discovered that pendulum exhibit regular periodic motion, a feature, which he correctly speculated, would make them useful for timekeeping devices such as clocks. This has led to their frequent metaphorical use as a way of describing the passage of time, or the experience of it. The mass of the weight on the pendulum does not affect the outcome, just as it does not affect the outcome of dropped objects.

What do these words mean?

Time period- time period, period of time, period -an amount of time; "a time period of 30 years"; "hastened the period of time of his recovery"; "Picasso's blue period.

Frequency- frequency, frequency, often ness -- the number of occurrences within a given time period, usually 1 second; "the frequency of modulation was 40 cycles per second"

Oscillate-vibrate move or swing from side to side regularly; "the needle on the meter was oscillating"

What energy transfers take place in a pendulum?

At the top of the swing the potential energy is a maximum and the kinetic energy is zero. At the bottom of the swing the potential energy is zero and the kinetic energy is a maximum. So, all the potential energy is transferred to kinetic energy by the time the bob has reached the bottom of the swing. This follows from the Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy can’ be created or destroyed; only transferred from one type to another.

Are their any useful formulae relating to pendulums?

The period of oscillation of the pendulum, T, is defined in terms of the acceleration due to gravity, g, and the length of the pendulum, L:

What did you try to find out?

I tried to find out whether increasing the weight of the bob at the lower end of the pendulum affected the time period of the swing.

Description of experiment

The experiment was setup on the pendulum at a fixed length. To make this possible we had the length of the string and its maximum extent in length so that we had a set length that was easy to remember and if we had to redo our test or repeat our actions then we could easily pick up a stable and unchanging measurement. We then started with the bob on it’s own and let it swing from a set distance of eighty centimeters. We started timing with a stopwatch and let it complete it’s up to the maximum point, on the side of the equilibrium that it started on, ten times. We then stopped the stopwatch and divided the time on the stopwatch by ten to get the time of one swing’s time period. We have then repeated the same action with extra weight at regular differences on the bob to see if the time period was affected.

Observations

From every ones results we managed to get hold of some key observations, these were:

Small lengths of the string are faster than large lengths of the string
Large string lengths are less accurate in tests because the jolt more and are harder to record with.
The bob on the end of the string or rod does not affect the time period that much, if at all.
The larger the bob, the more steady and less jolting the string is.