Notre Dame University (Louaize)

Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences

Department of Physics and Astronomy

PHS 275-B
Experimental Physics Laboratory

Large Amplitude Pendulum, with PC

Interface

Prepared by:
Maria Bassil
Marilyne Bou Younes
Joseph Maakar
Mario Fares

Submitted to:
Ms. Jessy Matar

May 18, 2016

INTRODUCTION

The aim of this experiment is to prove experimentally the theoretical relation

that relates the period of an oscillating simple pendulum to its length, the

gravitational acceleration, and the angular amplitude of oscillations. A simple

pendulum consists of a center of mass ‘m’ connected to one end of a rod of

length ‘L’ and of negligible mass whose other end is connected to a

frictionless pivot. When the point mass is pulled away from its equilibrium

position by an angle ‘α’, it starts oscillating back and forth. Due to the

principle of conservation of mechanical energy in the absence of friction, the

following theoretical relation is derived:

T =¿∗¿

where: -T is the period of oscillations (in s)

-To is a constant derived from the length ‘L’ of the rod and the

L
gravitational acceleration ‘g’ by the following relation: ¿=2 Π
√ g

- α is the angular amplitude of oscillations

For small angular amplitudes of oscillations, the period of oscillations can be

approximated by To, and is therefore unrelated to the value of the angular

amplitude α of oscillations.

The equation below relates the period of oscillations to To and α:

1
 1 α
T = ¿ sin2
4 2()
+¿

In order to verify this equation several tests will be done in order to plot the

graph of the variation of the period T of oscillations as a function of sin2(α/2),

where α is the angular amplitude of oscillations. The resulting slope of the

linear fit should have an approximate value of ¼ *To, and the y-intercept

should have an approximate value of To, in order to verify this theoretical

relation.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
The experimental setup consists of the following:
 A simple rigid pendulum consisting of a 35 cm long lightweight aluminum

tube of negligible mass with a 75g mass at its end, mounted on a rotary

motion sensor, connected to an “Xplorer GLX” interface, and to a

computer.

 A clamped-on vertical scale with pointers.

The procedure consists of the following numbered steps:

1- The length “L” of the pendulum for pivot to pivot is measure using the

clamped-on vertical scale, and is recorded down with its uncertainty.

2- The rotary motion sensor is connected to one of the main ports of the

GLX, and the CAPSTONE software on the PC is calibrated to generate a

graph which measures the angle of oscillations (in degrees) as a

function of time, and a digits display to show the angular value of

oscillations.

2
 3- Under CAPSTONE, recording is begun with the pendulum at rest in its

equilibrium position, and is then shifted 10o (as seen by the DIGITS

display) away from its equilibrium position and released, and is allowed

to swing back and forth several times to see a sinusoidal motion on the

graph display.

4- Recording is stopped, the sinusoidal part of the graph display is

selected, and a “Sine Fit” is applied. The angular velocity ω is recorded

down along with its uncertainty.

5- Steps 3 and 4 are then repeated for angles for every amplitude

between 15o and 90o, each time increasing the deflection by 50.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The following results were obtained after taking data for every amplitudes of

oscillations, and measuring the length of the pendulum:

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 Table 1: Experimental

The length of the pendulum is measured using the clamped-on vertical scale,

and turned out to be of length L=35 cm, with an uncertainty of 0.1cm. Then,

T0 is calculated by the following relation:

L 0.35 m
¿=2 Π
√ g
=2 Π
√
9.81 m/s 2
=1.186 s

This has an uncertainty on To due to the uncertainty on the length of the

pendulum as follows:

∆L L 0.001 0.35
∆ ¿=Π ×
L
×
√g
=Π ×
0.35
×
9.81√=0.0017 s

The period of oscillations corresponding to each amplitudes of oscillations

can be deduced from the value of ω by the relation T=2Π/ω, where T is in

seconds and ω is in rd/s. Then, the uncertainty on each value of T is deduced

from the corresponding value of the uncertainty on ω, by the following

relation:

∆ T ∆ 2 Π Δω TΔω
= + → ΔT =
T 2Π ω ω

The following graph shows the variation of the ratio of period of oscillations

T/To as a function of the angular amplitude α (in degrees):

4
 1.4
1.2
1
0.8
T / T0

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140
α (degrees)

Figure 1: Variation of the period of oscillations as a function of the

It is angular amplitude evident

1 2 α
that from the theoretical equation T = ¿ sin
4 2 ()
+ ¿ as the angular amplitude α

of oscillations increases, the period T of oscillations increases.

The following graph shows the variation of the period T/To of oscillations as a

function of sin2(α/2) with a linear curve fit, as follows:

1.4
1.2
1 f(x) = 0.34 x + 0.86
R² = 0.97
0.8
T/ T0

0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8
sin^2 (α/2) (rd)

Figure 2: Variation of the period as a function of

sin2(α/2)

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The obtained slope from the resulting linear fit has an approximate value of

0.3438, and a y-intercept of an approximate value of 0.8618. Then the

uncertainty on the obtained slope and on the obtained y-intercept must be

calculated, as follows:

∆ y √N
Δslope = 2 2
+|slope| tan ⁡¿ ¿0.0185 ¿0.01879
√ N∗∑ x i −( ∑ xi )
∆ y √∑ x i2 0.00025× √ 1.999
∆ y −intercept= 2
= =0. 0001 076
2
√ N ∑ x i −( ∑ xi ) √ 13 (1.999 )−15.227
where the value of Δy is taken as the maximum uncertainty on the period

obtained for each case, which is of approximate value of 0.00025 and the

value of N is the number of tested amplitudes which is 13.

Theoretically, the slope of the resulting linear fit must have a value of

¼To which is 0.29675 s with an uncertainty of ¼ ΔTo which is 0.000424s,

and the y-intercept must have a value of To, which is around 1.187s, with an

uncertainty of ΔTo which is around 0.001695s.

The results can be summarized as follows:

0.3250425 ≤ experimental slope≤ 0.362629

0.2962774≤ theoretical slope≤ 0.2971251
REJECTED

0.861704 ≤ experimental y-intercept≤ 0.8619194

1.1851096≤ theoretical y-intercept≤ 1.1885005
REJECTED

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 1 2 α
The power series is approximated by T = ¿ sin
4 ()
2
+ ¿ which is enough to

approximate data well for angles less 45◦ since the higher order exponents in

these cases are too small to make a difference. This begins to fail for angles

greater than 90◦ where the higher order exponents are larger and will affect

the final answer.

CONCLUSION

As observed from above, the experimental interval obtained for the slope is

not accepted because the theoretical interval of the slope does not fall within

the accepted experimental interval. Also, the experimentally obtained

interval for the y-intercept does not intersect the theoretical interval, and

therefore is also not accepted.

In conclusion, the experiment turned out to be unsuccessful as the sources

of error may include very small damping, or human errors such as the

inaccurate reading and recording of the experimental data or the inability to

release the pendulum at the exact specified angular amplitude.