Name Surname: Muhammad Ammar Shahzad Date: 24 / 11 / 2020

Student ID No: 2488799

Section No: 13

Exp. 3: Simple Pendulum Experiment II - Large Angles

Experiment Background and Theory
There are two tasks to be conducted under this experiment aimed to determine the effect of the
angle of pendulum, 𝜃, on the time period of the pendulum, 𝜏. These tasks will be referred to as task
A and B respectively in this pre-report. In these experiments, time period won’t be measured for a
single oscillation but instead, it will be calculated from the time period for multiple oscillations to
reduce the effect of random errors on the experiment. The formula for calculating time period is
mentioned below.
𝜏𝑛
𝜏= (1)
𝑛
In this equation, 𝜏 is the time period of pendulum for one oscillation and n is the number of
oscillations for which the time period, 𝜏𝑛 is measured.

Task A
This task is aimed to directly determine the relation between 𝜃 and 𝜏 by measuring different values
of time period for different angles. Since the only variable in this task is the angle of the pendulum
so other factors such as length of pendulum (L) and mass of the bob (M) shall be kept constant
throughout the experiment. Secondly, this task also aims to verify the equation mentioned below
by using the data obtained from this experiment [1].
1 11 4 173 22931
𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 ≈ 𝜏0 (1 + 𝜃02 + 𝜃0 + 𝜃06 + 𝜃8) (2)
4 3072 737280 1321205760 0
In this equation, 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡 is the time period of the pendulum when the maximum angle of pendulum
is 𝜃0 and 𝜏0 is the time period of the pendulum at small angles when the air resistance is negligible.
This equation will be verified by finding a 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑜𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙 by calculation and 𝜏𝑒𝑥𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒𝑑 , which
will be measured from the experiment. To confirm the mentioned equation, these both values will
be compared for each value of 𝜃 and if the difference between both values is within an acceptable
range, then the equation will be said to be valid.

Task B
In task B, we don’t need to design another apparatus but instead we simply have to change some
variables in task A in such a manner that we should be able to obtain a specific value of time period
which has been assigned to us as 1.7s. As we will have the data also available from task A so the
simplest way to conduct this task will be by plotting a graph of time period of pendulum (on y-
axis) against the angle of release of pendulum (on x-axis) and then determining the required value
of 𝜃 when 𝜏 = 1.7𝑠 by using the graph. By this method, a very accurate value of 𝜏 which will be
very close to the assigned value can be obtained without difficulty.

Description of Experiment & Drawings or Sketches of Setup

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 is 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.

References
[1] D. Amrani, 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).