DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

COLLEGE OF NATURAL AND COMPUTATIONALSCIENCE

ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

LAB REPORT

EXPERIMENT 2

LOCAL ACCELERATION DUE TO

GRAVITY USING SIMPLE PENDULUM

DATE OF EXPERIMENT: 26/5/2022 G.C

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 4/7/2022

GROUP NUMBER: A2
GROUP MEMBERS: ID NUMBER
 ASHENAFI TSEGAYE WELDEMIKAEL UGR/5963/14
 AREGAWI FIKRE ABEBE UGR/6531/14
 AMICABLE ALEMAYEHU MIKAEL UGR/0985/14
 BEIMNET LEULSEGED NIGATU UGR/1820/14
 BEZAWIT TSIGE WELDEMARIAM UGR/1066/14

NAME OF INSTRUCTOR:
NAME OF LAB ASSISTANT: DEBEBE M.
PRE LAB QUESTIONS
1.how is a pendulum set?
 first the stand we are using should be firm and stable
 we tie the bob to the string and connect the string to the forearm properly
 the string has to be inelastic
 if there is something that interrupt the oscillation from oscillating properly, we
should put it far away from the experiment
 some times if there is a fan around, it may interfere with the experiment so it is
better to turn it off
2. What are the required apparatuses?
 Mass (bob of different size)…………………. 3
 String with manageable length……………..1
 Support (stand and ceiling)……………………1
 Digital/analog stop watch……………………..1
 Meter stick………………………………………….. 1
3. What is the known and standard acceleration due to gravity?
 9.8m/s2
4. What are the factors affecting the acceleration due to gravity?
 Length of the string
 Period of the oscillation
 Local Acceleration Due To Gravity Using Simple
Pendulum

Abstract
Two experiments were performed to find the local acceleration due to gravity using a simple
pendulum. The first experiment was done using a smaller mass and a larger mass was used in
the second experiment. The acceleration due to gravity was determined by finding the time it
takes for one complete oscillation by measuring the period of time it takes for the pendulum
to complete 10 oscillations and taking the average we then calculated the acceleration due to
2 l
gravity using the formula g=4 π 2 .The resulting values were ¿±0.07) and ¿±0.06)
T

Purpose
The purpose of this laboratory experiment was to determine the local acceleration due to
gravity using a simple pendulum.

Materials
Item Quantity
Mass (bob of different size) 2
String with manageable length 1
Support (Stand and ceiling) 1
Digital/analog stop watch 1
Meter stick 1

Prediction: we predicted that the result of this experiment would be near to the accepted
acceleration due to gravity which is 9.8m/ s2.
Introduction
A pendulum is a weight
suspended from a pivot so that it
can swing freely. When a
pendulum is displaced sideways
from its resting, equilibrium
position, it is subject to a
restoring force due to gravity that
will accelerate it back toward the
equilibrium position. When
released, the restoring force
acting on the pendulum's mass
causes it to oscillate about the
equilibrium position, swinging back and forth. The time for one complete cycle,
a left swing and a right swing, is called the period.

The period of swing of a simple gravity pendulum depends on its length the
local strength of gravity, and to a small extent on the maximum angle that the
pendulum swings away from vertical, θ0, called the amplitude. It is
independent of the mass of the bob. If the amplitude is limited to small swings,
the period T of a simple pendulum, the time taken for a complete cycle, is:

√
T = 2π l
g

Where T τ is the length of the pendulum and g is the local acceleration due to
gravity. For small swings the period of swing is approximately the same for
different size swings: that is, the period is independent of amplitude. This
property, called isochronism, is the reason pendulums are so useful for
timekeeping. Successive swings of the pendulum, even if changing in
amplitude, take the same amount of time.
Methods
1. We set up the apparatus as shown in the figure.
2. We set the initial length of the pendulum at 80 cm.
3. We used a stopwatch to measure the time it took for 10
complete oscillations. We then took the average to find the time
taken for one oscillation.
4. We repeated these steps by consecutively increasing the length
by 10 cm five times.
5. We then repeated the part l experiment by changing the bob of
small mass to large mass in part ll

Data Analysis/Result
SMALL MASS part l
Time t for 10 Length(l) Time T for T2 g ( g−g ̅ ) ( g−g ̅ )
2
Number of
oscillation (in In cm each
activity
sec) oscillation
1 17.39 80 1.739 3.024 10.43 0.16 0.0256
2 18.45 90 1.845 3.404 10.427 0.157 0.0246
3 19.71 100 1.971 3.884 10.15 -0.12 0.0144
4 20.60 11 2.06 4.244 10.22 -0.05 0.0025
5 21.61 12 2.161 4.67 10.13 -0.14 0.0196
Average 19.55 100 1.95 3.845 10.27 0.0014 0.0173

 acceleration due to gravity using the average period. =10.27

 average(g̅) = 10.27
 standard deviation = 0.15
 the percentage error. Using the standard 9.81m/s2 = 4.7%
5.Plot the period T
2
vs l

5
4.5
4
3.5
period squared

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
length
Data Analysis/Result
Large mass part 2
Time t for 10 Length(l) Time T for T2 g ( g−g ̅ ) ( g−g ̅ )
2
Number of
oscillation (in In cm each
activity
sec) oscillation
1 17.75 80 1.775 3.15 10.03 -0.17 0.0289
2 18.56 90 1.856 3.445 10.31 0.11 0.0121
3 19.64 100 1.964 3.857 10.24 0.04 0.0016
4 20.51 110 2.051 4.2066 10.323 0.123 0.0151
5 21.63 120 2.163 4.679 10.125 -0.075 0.0056
Average 19.62 100 1.962 3.867 10.20 0.0056 0.01266

 acceleration due to gravity using the average period 10.20

 average(g̅¿= 10.20
 standard deviation = 0.13
 the percentage error Using the standard 9.81m/s2 = 4%

5.Plot the period T 2 vs l

PERIOD SQUARED VS LENGTH

5
4.5
4
3.5
PERIOD SQUARED

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125
LENGTH

Discussion
In part 1 a small bob was hung from stand by string vertically and it was given small
displacement for the string to oscillate 10 times starting from 80 cm of string length. this
procedure was repeated with 90cm,100cm,110cm,120cm of string length then the period
of the whole oscillation was measured and it was divided by 10 to get the period for each
oscillation after that local acceleration due to gravity was calculated for each oscillation
2 l
using g= 4 π 2 then the local acceleration due to gravity is found with experimental
T
uncertainty, the average local acceleration due to gravity is¿±0.07)
The sources of error in this part of the experiment are due to the precision of the string
measurement using meter stick and unstableness of the support and the reaction time
measuring the period of oscillation using stop watch. The meter stick was mounted
vertically Because of the location of the meter stick there was some slight angle sight view
Because of that there was parallax error in reading the meter stick thus systematic error due
to parallax should be minimal. the other source of error is unstableness of the support and
the reaction time in measuring the period made the reading to fluctuate in different
direction which is random error
In part 2 the experiment was done with larger bob to know the effect of mass and the same
procedure was taken as the first one but with different mass and with different amplitudes
the results showed that changing the mass and amplitude doesn’t affect the local
acceleration due to gravity, the sources of error on this part are same to the first part. The
local acceleration due to gravity found in this part is ¿±0.39)
Since there is no much big difference in result between the two parts The only small
difference found on the result between them is a matter of reaction time on measuring the
period of oscillation.

Conclusion
Besides measuring the local acceleration due to gravity using two methods we verified the
relationship between period squared and length of the string and observed mass doesn’t
affect the local acceleration due to gravity

References
1. K.K. Mohindroo, 1999. Basic Principles of Physics, 3rd ed. Vol.1., Pitambar Publishing
Company, New Delhi b
2. Sears and Zimansky, University Physics with modern Physics, Yaoung and Freedman,
13th edition, 2012.
ANSWERS TO POST LAB QUESTIONS
1. What is the relation between period and the amplitude of the oscillations?

When the amplitude is small the pendulum’s restoring force will also be small, since the
formula for restoring force is mgsinƟ that when Ɵ is small sinƟ will also be small, this
decreases the restoring force , which proportionally decreases the acceleration of the bob,
So it travels smaller distance with smaller speed.

when amplitude is greater the pendulum’s restoring force will also be greater, since the
formula for restoring force is mgsinƟ that when Ɵ is larger sinƟ will also be larger this
increases the restoring force , which proportionally increases the acceleration of the bob so
that it travels greater distance with greater speed.
These two attributes cancel each other and make the period of the
oscillation constant so amplitude doesn’t affect the period of the oscillation
smaller distance distance
Time for smaller amplitude = =
smaller speed speed

greater distance distance

Time for larger amplitude= =
greater speed speed

so the time it takes for the bob with smaller amplitude to oscillate = with the time it takes
for the bob with larger amplitude to oscillate.

amplitude

2. Does the change of mass affect the acceleration due to gravity?

No it doesn’t affect the acceleration due to gravity, when we started to get the formula for
acceleration due to gravity we started with;
ma=-mgsinƟ which is cancelled out from both sides
so the two quantities are independent from each other