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Practical No.10 Simple Pendulum

This document describes an experiment to investigate the relationship between the length of a simple pendulum and the period of its oscillations. The experiment involves varying the length of a pendulum and measuring the time for 20 oscillations at each length. A graph of length vs period squared will be plotted and the slope used to determine the value of acceleration due to gravity.

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998 views1 page

Practical No.10 Simple Pendulum

This document describes an experiment to investigate the relationship between the length of a simple pendulum and the period of its oscillations. The experiment involves varying the length of a pendulum and measuring the time for 20 oscillations at each length. A graph of length vs period squared will be plotted and the slope used to determine the value of acceleration due to gravity.

Uploaded by

mw1rct
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Monday: October 16, 2017

SIMPLE PENDULUM
Aim
To investigate the relationship between the length of a simple pendulum and the period of its oscillations.
Theory
A simple pendulum is a weight suspended from a point by a light non stretchable string so that the weight can
swing freely.
A simple pendulum is very useful for clocks, the calculation of the acceleration due to gravity, and other
scientific instruments. This is because the time it takes for a pendulum to swing back and forth is relatively
constant.
In order to design a pendulum to give the desired time of oscillation we must learn which variables effect this
periodic time. It is possible the length of the pendulum affects the period of oscillation so we should investigate
this relationship.

Materials
Retort stand, meter rule, stop watch, string about 150cm long, 2 wood pads and a pendulum bob.

Procedure
1. Tie a pendulum bob to one end of a string.
2. Clamp the other end of the string firmly on the retort stand so that the length L of the string is 100cm.
3. Displace the pendulum bob by a small angle and release it. Record the time, t, in seconds for twenty (20)
oscillations.
4. Repeat procedure (3) for the values of L of 80cm, 60cm, 40cm and 20cm.
5. Tabulate your results as L, t, period T and T2, whereby the period is the total time divided by the total number
of oscillations to give the time per oscillation.
6. Plot the graph of L against T2.
7. Draw a best-fit line and determine its slope.
8. What is the relationship between the length of a pendulum and its period of oscillation?
9. Given that T=2(L/g)1/2 find the value of g from your experiment.
10. What would be the relationship between L and T2 if the graph of T2 is plotted against L?
11. Do you think the mass and the shape of the pendulum bob affects the period of oscillation?
12. Will two pendulums of the same length have the same period if they are at two different
altitudes? Explain.
Alphonce JK ,October 2017

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