Name Surname: Muhammad Ammar Shahzad Date: 29 / 11 / 2002

Student ID No: 2488799 Section No: 13

Experiment 3: Simple Pendulum Experiment II – Large Angles

Abstract

The purpose of this experiment is to verify some relations that apply to simple pendulum motion
at large angles. There are two tasks by which, these relations are verified for the pendulum. These
are referred to as Task A and Task B in this report and they are discussed in more detail in the
following sections. In these tasks, we are mainly concerned with determining the effect of the
angle of the pendulum on the time period of the pendulum. Based on this principle, the variations
in time period for different values of pendulum angle are determined and it is tested if a given
relation holds between time period and angle of the pendulum which is also shown in equation 1
in the theory section below. Furthermore, after verifying that relation in the first task, that relation
is further used to obtain our required value of time period from the pendulum by varying the
angle of the pendulum.

Introduction

As mentioned in the abstract, our aim is to verify and apply a specific relation between time
period and angle of pendulum which is shown below in the theory section. To prove this relation,
experimental values of time period are analyzed against the pendulum angle as this will indicate
if there is a correlation between these two values and then we could claim that equation 1 (theory
section) is experimentally correct.

Theory

Task A

In the first task, a pendulum has been designed in such a way that the length of the pendulum and
the mass of the bob are kept constant - as shown in the ‘method and description of experiment
section’- throughout the experiment while the angle of pendulum is varied from 20° to 60°. The
purpose of this sub-experiment is to verify the following equation [1].

𝟏 𝟏𝟏 𝟒 𝟏𝟕𝟑 𝟐𝟐𝟗𝟑𝟏
𝝉𝒆𝒙𝒂𝒄𝒕 ≈ 𝝉𝟎 (𝟏 + 𝜽𝟐𝟎 + 𝜽𝟎 + 𝜽𝟔𝟎 + 𝜽𝟖 + ⋯ ) (𝟏)
𝟒 𝟑𝟎𝟕𝟐 𝟕𝟑𝟕𝟐𝟖𝟎 𝟏𝟑𝟐𝟏𝟐𝟎𝟓𝟕𝟔𝟎 𝟎

As it can be understood from the equation, each value of 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 is the actual time period of the
pendulum for every angle, 𝜃0 and 𝜏0 is the theoretical value of the time period of the pendulum for
small angles which depends not on angle of pendulum, but on the length of pendulum (L) and the
gravitational acceleration (g) which we consider equal to 9.80665 m/s2 in below equation[2]. The
formula for calculating 𝜏0 is shown below.

𝐿
𝜏0 = 2𝜋√ (2)
𝑔

Using this equation, a value of 𝜏0 can be obtained which will be constant throughout the experiment
for all values of angle, 𝜃. The above relation will be verified by calculating 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 and
then measuring 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 for different values of 𝜃 between 20° and 60°. This must be noted
that 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 will be calculated theoretically by using equation 1 and equation 2 while
𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 will be measured from the experiment using the tracker software.

Lastly, to calculate the uncertainties, mentioned with a delta sign in the below equations, the
following formulas will be used which have been derived by taking derivatives of equation 1 and
equation 2.

1
∆𝜏0 = 𝜋√ (∆𝐿) (3)
𝑔𝐿

1 11 3 173 22931
∆𝜏 = 𝜏0 ( 𝜃0 + 4. 𝜃0 + 6. 𝜃05 + 8. 𝜃 7 ) ∆𝜃 (4)
8 3072 737280 1321205760 0

Task B

In this task, our objective is to determine a value of angle of pendulum, 𝜃0 , at which the time
period of the pendulum is equal or almost equal to 1.7s (this is the 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 value which was
assigned in the second TA meeting). Although this can be also accomplished by making a new
pendulum with different length but there is also a more efficient method to conduct this task.
Using the results from the Task A and by careful analysis, a graph can be drawn using MATLAB
to demonstrate the relation between 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 and 𝜃. On the plotted graph, y-axis will
indicate time period and x-axis will indicate the angle of pendulum. As we already know the time
period we want from our pendulum (1.7 s), the correlated value of 𝜃 can be also obtained from
the x-coordinate of the graph when y-coordinate is equal to our desired value of time period. By
this method, a value of 𝜃 can be obtained with very high accuracy. Once this angle value is
obtained, time period can be measured at that angle by performing only one experiment at that
angle. If no errors are made in calculations or experiment, then the value of time period will come
out within the percentage error limit in 𝜏𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 .

Method and Description of Experiment

As it has been already mentioned in the theory section that the same pendulum from Task A will
be used in Task B so we don’t have to construct a
different pendulum for each task. Since we have
already mentioned the theory and experimental
procedure of the experiment in the above section so
this section is mainly focused on the experimental
setup. To conduct this experiment, a pendulum is
constructed using an M10 nut as a pendulum bob
which is attached with the help of a string (with
negligible mass compared to the bob) to a nail which
has already been hammered into the wall. The
length, L of the pendulum is such that it isn’t either too short to move freely and it’s also not too
long to prevent it from hitting the ground and losing energy. It should be also noted that since this
experiment is to be conducted at large angles, there should not be any obstruction in the path of
pendulum such as walls, shelves etc. A distance measuring scale is also attached to the wall with
transparent tape so it can be used to calibrate distance while working with the tracker software. The
figure on the right shows how we will design our experiment.
Usually, it is a better practice to measure time for more than 5 oscillations-at least-and then
taking average to find time period of a single oscillation but in this experiment, we are dealing
with large angles which means that the maximum speed of the pendulum and hence the effect of
air resistance will also be higher for larger angles. Thus, instead of taking time period for
multiple oscillations, time period of half oscillation will be used to minimize the effect of air
resistance. By this method, we will measure the time period throughout this experiment and then
use it for further analysis to verify and apply equation 1 shown in the following section.

Results

Task A

Length of pendulum = 0.60 𝑚 ± 0.01𝑚

Mass of bob, m = 10 g = 1.0 × 10−2 𝑘𝑔

Theoretical time period of pendulum for small angles (constant), 𝜏0 = 1.554 s

∆𝜏0 (calculated by equation 3) = 0.0130 s = 13 ms

The uncertainty in theoretical values of 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 can be calculated using equation 4 mentioned in
the theory section.

It must be also noted that while the angles in the table below are written in degrees, they must be
in radians when calculating 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 using equation 1.

Angle of Pendulum, 𝜏0 /𝑠 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 /𝑠 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 /𝑠

(𝜃0 )/°

20 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.601±0.002 1.59 ± 0.01

30 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.661±0.004 1.66 ± 0.01

40 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.745±0.005 1.75 ± 0.01

45 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.796±0.006 1.80 ± 0.01

50 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.853±0.007 1.85 ± 0.01

55 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.917±0.007 1.92 ± 0.01

 60 ± 2° 1.554 ± 0.013 1.987±0.008 1.99 ± 0.01

These results have been also plotted in the graph below using MATLAB software.

Read the conclusion section of part A to understand how this graph and table accomplish the aim
of our experiment.

Task B

The graph above is for both, experimental and theoretical values of time period. However, we
only need the experimental values of time period to accomplish our aim for task B. Hence, the
graph shown below will be used.
As we know that 𝜏𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 = 1.7𝑠 so using the above graph, angle of pendulum can be obtained
when the time period is projected to be 1.7s. This is shown in the graph below.

Hence, as seen in the graph, the angle of the pendulum at which the time period is 1.7 s should be
almost equal to 35 degrees. As the length of pendulum is already mentioned (0.60 m ± 0.01 m) so
using the same pendulum, the given time period can be achieved when the angle of pendulum is
35 degrees. Using this information, time period was also measured by experiment for 𝜃 = 60°
and it was measured to be equal to 1.72s. This is within the 5% error range of the experiment and
hence this verifies that the projection from the graph is also correct.

Conclusions
 Task A

In this task, our aim was to verify equation 1 for a range of large angles from 20 degrees to 60
degrees. Since the values of 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 and 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 exist within the range of
uncertainties in the experiment so it can be verified that the equation 1 holds true for the
mentioned range of the angle of pendulum. For the same reason, the graphs are also very close
indicating less differences between theoretical and experimental values of time period hence
again, proving our point that equation 1 holds true for this range of angles.

Task B
As it can be seen from the results section of this task, the experiment and the calculation for the
experiment can be said to be successful as not only it allowed us to obtain a projected value of the
required angle but it was also within the error range of the experiment. Hence, it can be
concluded that the aim of both task A and task B has been accomplished. For further
confirmation, the percentage error of the experiment is shown which is much less than 5%.
|𝐸𝑥𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 − 𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒|
𝑃𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐸𝑟𝑟𝑜𝑟 = × 100%
𝐴𝑐𝑡𝑢𝑎𝑙 𝑣𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒
1.72 − 1.70
= × 100% = 1.2%
1.70

References

[1] D. Armani, P. Paradis & M. Beaudin. (2008). REVISTA MEXICANA DE FISICSA. In

Approximation expressions for the large-angle period of a simple pendulum revisited. (pp 59-60)
[2] Taylor, Barry N.; Thompson, Ambler, eds. (March 2008). The international system of units
(SI) (PDF) (Report). National Institute of Standards and Technology. p. 52. NIST special
publication 330, 2008 edition.

Appendices

The picture below shows the values of time period in form of raw data when they were
measured from the pendulum for Task A.