Name Surname: Muhammad Ammar Shahzad Date: DD / 11 / 2020

Student ID No: 2488799 Signature:

Section No: 13

Experiment 2: Simple Pendulum I: Small Angles

Abstract

There are three sub-experiments to be conducted under the main title above and the aim of these
experiments is to verify if some certain relationships (which are shown in theory section) are valid
for simple pendulum motion at small angles. These relationships are tested by changing one
variable in each of the experiments including the angle of release, length of the pendulum and
causing an obstruction in the path of the pendulum to determine the effect of these variables on
the motion of pendulum.

Introduction

The experiment has been divided into three parts: A, B and C. In task A of this experiment, the
effect of the angle of release, 𝜽, is determined for the movement of pendulum by considering it as
a variable and measuring the period of pendulum, 𝝉 , for each value of 𝜽. In a similar way,
experiment 2 is conducted in which the aim is to determine the relation between length of the
pendulum, L, and the time period of the pendulum. This relation is further used to determine an
experimental value of gravitational acceleration constant, geffective, from our measurements. Part C
of the experiment is different from both task A and B as we don’t change any dimension as a
variable but instead an obstruction is caused in the path of the pendulum which causes it to have
a greater speed on one side from the equilibrium position. In part C, the maximum height of
pendulum on each side from equilibrium position is measured to calculate the maximum
gravitational potential energy of the pendulum on each end and hence, to verify if the law of
conservation of energy applies in this case on both phases (left and right) for the pendulum motion.

Theory

Task A

In this experiment, the formula for time period (mentioned below) is verified for a range of small
angles (up to 0.1 radians) to determine if the time period, 𝝉, is affected by the angle of release,
𝜽, of the pendulum. The equation shown below is to determine the time period of the
pendulum.

𝑳
𝝉 = 𝟐𝝅√ (𝟏)
𝒈

𝑚 [1]
We don’t know the value of g so earth standard gravity (𝑔 = 𝑔0 = 9.80665 ) will be used to
𝑠2
replace g in further calculations for the time period of the pendulum. As it can be seen from the
equation, time period (𝝉) seems to be independent of angle of release (𝜽) so if the experimental
value of 𝝉measured will be consistent for all values of 𝜽, then it will confirm our hypothesis of no
relation between 𝜽 and 𝜏. Also, if the measured value of time period will be equal to the
theoretical value of time period (calculated from equation 1) for all values of 𝜽, it will also prove
that equation 1 is experimentally correct. As there is a higher percentage error when measuring
time period of a single oscillation so it is better to measure 𝜏 for a larger number of oscillations
and take the average to reduce the error in measurement. The formula for calculating time period
of a single oscillation from time period of n oscillations is shown below.
𝑻𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒄𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒆𝒙𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒎𝒆 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒏 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒆𝒅
𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒅 (𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒔𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒔𝒄𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏) = (𝟐)
𝒏
It should be noted that other factors that might affect time period apart from angle of release
such as mass of the bob (M) and length of the string (L) must be kept constant as our aim is to
only determine the effect of angle of release, 𝜃 on the time period of the pendulum oscillations.
Task B
Unlike task A, the length L is a variable in this task instead of 𝜃 to verify the relation between L and
𝜏 in equation 1 which has been used again in this experiment.
𝑳
𝝉 = 𝟐𝝅√ (𝟏)
𝒈
In this experiment we have to keep the mass of bob (M) constant and as we already know that 𝜏 is
independent from 𝜃 (from Task A) so the only variable in our experiment is the length of the string
(L) that will be used in this experiment. The equation above can also be rearranged as shown.
𝑳
𝝉𝟐 = 𝟒𝝅𝟐 (𝟑)
𝒈
Different values of 𝜏 and 𝜏 2 must be calculated (by theory) and measured (by experiment) for
different values of L and two graphs will be plotted for 𝜏𝑖2 (𝐿𝑖 )theory (this implies that time period is
a function of length) and 𝜏𝑖2 (𝐿𝑖 )measured against 𝐿𝑖 . While calculating the theoretical value of 𝝉, we
don’t know the value of gravitational constant (g) so earth standard gravity (𝑔 = 𝑔0 =
𝑚 [1]
9.80665 ) will be used to calculate theoretical values of the time period. The graph of
𝑠2
𝜏𝑖2 (𝐿𝑖 )measured against 𝐿𝑖 will be a straight line (𝜏 2 ∝ 𝐿) as shown in equation 2 with slope equal to
4𝜋 2
and hence, an experimental value of g can be calculated from the slope of the graph as shown
𝑔
below.
𝟒𝝅𝟐
𝒈𝒆𝒇𝒇𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒆 = (𝟒)
𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒑𝒉
It should also be noted that time period of a single oscillation, 𝜏, should be calculated by using
equation 2 above to take average of time for multiple oscillations instead of measuring time for
a single oscillation. This will reduce the percentage error in the experiment by reducing the impact
of random errors such as human reaction error, parallax error etc.
Task C
In task C, our aim is to verify if the law of conservation of energy still holds when there is an
obstruction in the path of the pendulum as shown in Fig.2 in the section below. There are two
main forms of internal energy which are kinetic energy and potential energy. We will be
calculating the gravitational potential energy on both extremes because at extreme positions, all
of the kinetic energy of the pendulum is converted into the gravitational potential energy. The
formulas that will help us determine the gravitational potential energy on both extremes are
shown below.
𝑮𝑷𝑬 = 𝒎𝒈𝒉 (𝟓)
In equation 5, GPE is the gravitational potential energy, m is the mass of pendulum bob, g is the
value of gravitational constant and h is the height of the pendulum bob from its equilibrium
position. This can be further simplified to equations 5a and 5b (mentioned below) for
gravitational potential energy at both ends.
𝑮𝑷𝑬𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 = 𝒎𝒈𝒉𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 (𝟓𝒂)
𝑮𝑷𝑬𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 = 𝒎𝒈𝒉𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 (𝟓𝒃)

This must be known that hleft and hright do not represent any position of bob on left and right side
but they represent the height of bob from equilibrium position at extreme left and extreme right
positions respectively. Hence, heights at both ends will be measured to calculate the difference
in gravitational potential energies and if the difference in energy on both ends is zero or almost
zero (accounting for the external conditions that might affect the experiment) then it will be
proved that law of conservation of energy holds for this case of simple pendulum motion.

Method and Description of Experiment

To set up these experiments, a M12 nut is being used as a bob which is suspended with the help
of a thin string with negligible mass compared to the mass of the bob. This
is done to ensure that most of the mass of the
system is concentrated at the bob which should act
as a point mass in this case. Secondly, Tracker
software is being used in this experiment to take all
measurements of length, height etc. and even the
angle 𝜃 can be measured using the same software by
using some calculations (it can be measured using a
protractor too which is less accurate but more
convenient for taking measurements). Whenever
any measurements of time period are required, time period of at least 10
oscillations should be measured and then time period for one oscillation shall be calculated using
equation 1 to minimize the chance of random error in our measurements due to human reaction
time and other errors. Lastly, we know that our measurements are never perfect and hence there
is always some uncertainty so those uncertainties should be also included in all calculations either
in form of absolute uncertainty or percentage uncertainty to maintain the accuracy of the
experiment (whenever possible).

In task A and B, our aim is to verify equation 1 by changing some variables such as 𝜃 (angle of
release) and L (length of string) and to determine their effect on the time period of pendulum
equation. The details of the dimensions of conditions related to the experiment have been
mentioned in the paragraph above which can also be further clarified from the pictures attached
in the above paragraph. In task C however, the apparatus is a little different from the other tasks
as our aim in this experiment is to verify if the law of conservation of energy still holds when there
is an obstruction in the path of the pendulum. This is done by calculating the potential energy on
both extreme positions of the pendulum and by determining if they are equal to each other as
equal energies will indicate conservation of energy between those positions.

Results

Task A

In the experiment that was conducted for Task A, mass of bob was measured to be equal to
almost 100g and length of the pendulum string was 1.16m. The results of experiment conducted
for task A are shown in the table below.

Length of String Angle of release, 𝝉𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 /𝒔 𝝉𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 /𝒔

(L)/m 𝜽/°

1 1.16 2 2.16 2.17

2 1.16 3 2.16 2.16

3 1.16 4 2.16 2.20

4 1.16 5 2.16 2.18

5 1.16 6 2.16 2.15

2.16𝑠 + 2.15𝑠 + 2.19𝑠 + 2.17𝑠 + 2.13𝑠

𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛 = = 2.17𝑠
5

Task B

In this task, all other variables except L (length of string) were kept constant and the values of
these constants are mentioned below.

Mass of bob = 100g

Angle of Release = 6°

Value of gtheoretical = 9.80665 m/s2

The data obtained from the experiment is shown in the table below.
 𝑳𝒊 /𝒄𝒎 𝝉𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒚 /𝒔 𝝉𝟐𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒚 /𝒔𝟐 𝝉𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 /𝒔 𝝉𝟐𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 /𝒔𝟐

1 20 0.897 0.805 0.889 0.790

2 30 1.099 1.208 1.101 1.212

3 60 1.554 2.415 1.565 2.449

4 80 1.795 3.222 1.803 3.251

5 100 2.006 4.026 2.008 4.032

The data from the table has been plotted in the graph shown below.

Using this graph, the calculations for a value of geffective are shown in the conclusion section of
Task B.

Task C

In this task, the values of maximum height on both extreme positions have been measured from
the tracker by using the formula shown below.

ℎ𝑚𝑎𝑥 = 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 − ℎ𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑡 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

The length of the pendulum (L) in this task is 0.8m and the mass of bob is again 100g. The
pendulum was released at different angles for different values of h at both extremes which have
been shown in the table below.

n 𝒉𝒎𝒂𝒙𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 (mm) 𝒉𝒎𝒂𝒙𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 (mm) 𝑷. 𝑬𝒎𝒂𝒙𝒍𝒆𝒇𝒕 (mJ) 𝑷. 𝑬𝒎𝒂𝒙𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 (mJ)

1 4.0 4.0 3.92 3.92

2 6.0 6.0 5.88 5.88

3 7.0 7.0 6.86 6.86

4 9.0 9.0 8.83 8.83

Conclusions

Task A

As it can be seen from the values of 𝝉𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒍 mentioned in the table above, all values are
close to the theoretical value of time period and no increasing or decreasing trend is observed
which indicates that change in the value of 𝜽 does not cause any significant effect on time period
of oscillations and hence, 𝝉 is independent of 𝜽. Secondly, the calculated value of 𝝉𝒆𝒙𝒑𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏 is
almost equal to the calculated value of 𝝉𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 which verifies that the equation used to
calculate the time period (Equation 1) is experimentally correct.

Task B

2
As seen in the graph of Task B in the above section, the graph of 𝜏𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 against L is a straight
line which indicates a direct proportion between 𝜏 2 and L and hence also between 𝜏 and √𝐿. This
also confirms the relation of time period with L in equations 1 and 3 and since the equations
have been verified to be experimentally correct now, the formula shown in equation 4 in the
theory section can be used.

∆𝑦 3.645 − 0.967 𝑠2 𝑠2
𝑆𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 = = = 0.0405 = 4.058
∆𝑥 89.990 − 24.004 𝑐𝑚 𝑚

As seen in equation 4 that was established in the theory section:

4𝜋 2
𝑔𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 = (4)
𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑝ℎ

Hence,

4𝜋 2 𝑚
𝑔𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 = = 9.727 2
4.058 𝑠

In conclusion, we have verified the direct proportion relation between 𝜏 2 and L and then we have
used that graph to calculate a value of geffective which has came out to be 9.727 ms-2.

Task C

As seen from the results section of task C, the height of pendulum is same on both ends and
hence the gravitational potential energy is also same on both extreme position which indicates
that the energy has been conserved between both positions. Thus, it can be verified that the law
of conservation of energy holds for the pendulum between these positions even when there is an
obstruction in the path of the pendulum.

References

[1]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_of_Earth#:~:text=The%20nominal%20%22av
erage%22%20value%20at,for%20the%20variable%20local%20value)

Appendices

The data obtained from the experiment was directly added to the report so pictures of the
collected data cannot be attached with this file.