THE INFORATION AND COMMUNICATION UNIVERSITY ZAMBIA.

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING.

LAB REPORT

NAME: BLESSING MUNG’OMBA.

SIN: 1909623015.

COURSE: ICE0042.

PROGRAM: INFORMATION SECURITY AND COMPUTER FORENSICS.

YEAR: 1STYEAR.

DUE DATE: 24THFEBRUARY, 2020.

EXPERIMENTS:

1. TO DETERMIN THE POSITION OF THE CENTRE OF GARVITY OF A

IRREGULARLY SHAPED LAMINA.
2. DETERMING ACCELERATION OF GRAVITY.
EXPERIMENT NO.1

TITLE : Forces and equilibrium.

AIM : To determine the position of the centre of gravity of an irregularly shaped lamina.

APPARATUS.

1. One irregularly shaped lamina (Bristol board)

2. Optical pin
3. Retort Stand and Clamp
4. Two wooden blocks
5. A plumb line (pendulum bob on string).

METHODE.

1. Three holes where made on the irregularly shaped lamina far apart from each other
but fairly close to the edge of the lamina.
2. The holes where labelled A, B and C.
3. The lamina was suspended from hole A on an optical pin which was held horizontally
by wooden blocks in the clamp of the retort stand.
4. A plumb line was attached in front of the lamina.
5. The lamina and plumb line were displaced and then allowed to come to rest.
6. A straight line was drawn from the point of support the bottom of the lamina along the
string of the plumb line.
7. Step 1 to 6 where repeated for holes B and C.
8. The point of intersection of the three lines (labelled CG) gives the centre of gravity of
the lamina.

DISCUSSION.

The lengths the respective lines drawn between each hole and the intersection CG were
measured. The lengths were; 0.047m from hole A to the intersection point, 0.038m from hole
B to the centre and 0.045m from hole C to the intersection point respectively.

CONCLUSION.

From the observation and measurement, it was therefore concluded that the location of centre
of gravity for the irregularly shaped lamina was 0.047m from A, 0.038m from B and 0.045m
from C.
EXPERIMENT 2: DETERMINING ACCELERATION OF GRAVITY

OBJECTIVE:
To measure (g) by measuring the period of oscillations of a simple pendulum.

MATERIAL/APPARATUS:

Pendulum bob, Threads, 30cm rule, stop-watch, and a clamp stand.

THEORY:
Gravity exerts a force on every object. This force is proportional to the mass of the object.
The proportionality constant is the acceleration of gravity ‘g’. The gravity acceleration (g)
decreases with increasing elevation; however, for a few thousand feet above the earth’s
surface, it remains fairly constant. In this experiment, a simple pendulum will be used to
measure ‘g.’ A simple pendulum is made of a long string and a tiny metal sphere, steel or
preferably lead (higher density). The period of oscillation of a simple pendulum may be
found by the formula

PROCEDURE:
1.By changing the length of the string, the period (the time of one full oscillation) of
oscillation T, was changed. This was used as the reference point or state for counting the
number of oscillations. The period is the time elapsed between every two consecutive states.
To measure T, the time for 25 oscillations (swings) was measured and then divided by that
time by 25.
2. A length of L=40cm or close to 40cm was selected. As soon as the mass was released,
swinging started along with the timer turned on simultaneously. By clicking on the reset
button, the time was reset to zero and reselected the length when needed.
3. This was practiced a few times. As soon as the pendulum started moving counted zero. As
soon as it was back to the right again, counted 1, next time 2 and so on. At the 25th
occurrence, clicked on the applet and hold, recorded the elapsed time from the timer.
4. Calculated the time of oscillation or the period (T) by dividing the total time by the number
of oscillations that was counted.
5. Used the calculated (T) along with the exact length of the pendulum (L) in the above
formula to find “g.” This was the measured value for ‘g.’
6. Repeated procedure for 3 more cases. Reduced the intervals by 10cm. and recorded them
in the table in arrows 2, 3, and 4.
7. Run each case for a different number of oscillations, but not less than 25.
8. Recorded the measured time and the corresponding number of oscillations and calculated
“g” each case. And the value of g that was found to be close to its accepted value of 9.81m/s2.

9. calculated the mean value of ‘g’ and recorded in the space provided. This was the
measured value for ‘g.’
10. Found the %error on ‘g’ knowing that the accepted value was 9.81m/s-2.

DATA COLLECTION:

Trial Length Total time of oscillations (t) Number of T=t/N g=4π2L/T2

(L) [seconds] oscillations [seconds]
[meters] (N)
1 0.40 32.9 25 1.32 9.06m/s2
2 0.30 33.7 30 1.12 9.44m/s2
3 0.20 28.0 30 0.93 9.13m/s2
4 0.10 21.9 30 0.73 7.4m/s2
Mean “g”: 8.76m/s2
1st trial 2nd trial 3rd trial th
4 trial
i) L=40cm x i) L=30cm x i) L=20cm x i) L=10cm x
1m/100cm= 0.40m 1m/100cm= 0.3m 1m/100cm= 0.20m 1m/100cm= 0.10m
ii) T=t/N ii) T=t/N ii) T=t/N ii) T=t/N
=32.9s/25 =33.7s/30 =28s/30 =21.9s/30
=1.32s =1.12s =0.93s =0.73s
iii) g=4π2L/T2 iii) g=4π2L/T2 iii) g=4π2L/T2 iii) g=4π2L/T2
=4π2(0.40m)/ (1.32s)2 =4π2(0.30m)/(1.12s)2 =4π2(0.20m)/(0.93s)2 =4π2(0.10m)/(0.73s)2
=9.06 m/s2 =9.44 m/s2 =9.13m/s2 =7.4m/s2

CALCULATION(s):

Mean=
∑ of theTerms
Number of Terms
 9.06 m/s 2 +9.44 m/ s 2 +9.13 m/s 2+7.4 m/ s 2
Mean gravity=
4

COMPARISON OF THE RESULTS:

Accepted value−Experimental Value

%Error= x 100
Accepted Value

1st Trial:

%error=¿ 9.81 m/ s2−9.06 m/s 2∨ ¿ ¿ x 100% = 7.6%

9.81m/s 2

2nd Trial:

%error=¿ 9.81 m/ s2−9.44 m/s 2∨ ¿ ¿ x 100% = 3.8%

9.81m/ s2

3rd Trial:

2 2 ¿
%error¿ ¿ 9.81 m/s −9.13 m/s ∨ 9.81m/ s2 ¿ x 100% = 6.9%

4th Trial:

2 2 ¿
% error¿ ¿ 9.81 m/s −7.4 m/s ∨ 9.81 m/ s2 ¿ x 100% = 24.6%

DISCUSION

The greater the gravitational pull, the grater the value of g, and therefore, the shorter the
period of oscillations of a pendulum swinging. This explains why the value of acceleration
due to gravity varies from planet to planet

CONCLUSION.

The experimental value for acceleration due to gravity can be calculated using the period of
the pendulum.

REFERNCE.

1. Nelson, RA. ,1986 Rich physics from a simple system, American journal of physics.
(pp.112-121).