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    206 B3 Lab Report

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    Justin Kan
    The student measured the period of a Kater pendulum at different amplitudes to calculate the local acceleration of gravity. Using the measured distances between the pendulum's center of mass and knife edges, along with period measurements, the student calculated g to be 9.78128 m/s2, within 0.04% of the accepted value of 9.81 m/s2. The purpose was to analyze a physical pendulum's oscillations and determine g from period data taken at varying amplitudes, finding a linear relationship between amplitude and period.

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    206 B3 Lab Report

    Uploaded by

    Justin Kan
    2K views3 pages
    The student measured the period of a Kater pendulum at different amplitudes to calculate the local acceleration of gravity. Using the measured distances between the pendulum's center of mass and knife edges, along with period measurements, the student calculated g to be 9.78128 m/s2, within 0.04% of the accepted value of 9.81 m/s2. The purpose was to analyze a physical pendulum's oscillations and determine g from period data taken at varying amplitudes, finding a linear relationship between amplitude and period.

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    The student measured the period of a Kater pendulum at different amplitudes to calculate the local acceleration of gravity. Using the measured distances between the pendulum's center of mass and knife edges, along with period measurements, the student calculated g to be 9.78128 m/s2, within 0.04% of the accepted value of 9.81 m/s2. The purpose was to analyze a physical pendulum's oscillations and determine g from period data taken at varying amplitudes, finding a linear relationship between amplitude and period.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    2K views3 pages

    206 B3 Lab Report

    Uploaded by

    Justin Kan
    The student measured the period of a Kater pendulum at different amplitudes to calculate the local acceleration of gravity. Using the measured distances between the pendulum's center of mass and knife edges, along with period measurements, the student calculated g to be 9.78128 m/s2, within 0.04% of the accepted value of 9.81 m/s2. The purpose was to analyze a physical pendulum's oscillations and determine g from period data taken at varying amplitudes, finding a linear relationship between amplitude and period.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as doc, pdf, or txt
    of 3

    REPORT FOR LAB B3: THE PHYSICAL PENDULUM

    Nathaniel Kan
    4/01/02

    ABSTRACT:

    In the Physical Pendulum lab we calculated the local acceleration of gravity by using a
    Kater pendulum and measuring the period at different amplitudes. Our best value for g
    was 9.78128 m/s2 which is within 0.04% of the accepted value of 9.81 m/s2.

    PURPOSE:

    The purpose of this lab was to analyze the oscillations of a physical pendulum, in this
    case a Kater pendulum, which is equipped with weights at both ends of the shaft. We
    were to calculate the local acceleration of gravity based on our data taken of the period of
    the pendulum’s swing. We also looked for a relationship between the variation of the
    period and the amplitude of the swing.

    PRINCIPLES:

    A simple pendulum consists of a weight m attached to a massless string of fixed length L


    oscillating at a small enough angle so sin(theta) = theta, will possess a period:

    In reality, however, there are no massless strings or point masses, which adds
    complications. For our lab, we used a Kater pendulum, which possesses counterweights
    on each end of the pendulum’s length.

    1
    Kater Pendulum

    The Kater pendulum uses two fixed knife edges where the periods about each knife edge
    are the same within 1 part per 105. This means that the distance between the two knife
    edges can be used as L to determine g. While a normal small amplitude pendulum gives
    its period as:

    By substituting in T1, which corresponds to the period about the knife edge distance h1
    from the center of mass, and T2, which corresponds to the period about the edge h2 from
    the COM, along with values h1 and h2, it is possible to determine g:

    In our lab, we will use this equation to calculate our value of g.

    PROCEDURE:

    We began this lab by setting up the pendulum and the photocell timer, making a few trial
    measurements of to familiarize ourselves with the timer’s use. We then connected the
    timer to an external BK counter, which is able to display the period of the pendulum for
    the most recent oscillation.

    We then took the pendulum off the wall and used a balance to measure and mark the
    center of mass. We also used microscopes to measure the exact length of the distance
    between the two knife edges, taking painstaking care to determine the length compared to
    an actual one meter metal rod. This proved a difficult task, due to the lack of intense light
    and the instability of the microscope lenses. We did finally get an accurate measurement

    2
    for the length, however (see lab book page 66 for values of L). We then measured the
    lengths between the COM and the knife edges, h1 and h2.

    Next we rehung the pendulum on the first knife edge and took measurements of the
    period for varying amplitudes, including d0 = 5 cm, 10 cm, 15 cm and 20 cm. Then we
    turned the pendulum around and took measurements for the pendulum oscillating about
    the other knife edge.

    CALCULATIONS:

    To calculate g (with unadjusted T), we averaged our T1 values, and averaged our T2
    values and then inputted them and our h1 and h2 values into the formula:

    This yielded results as shown below:

    g (with
    unadjusted T)
    T @ d0 = 5 9.78129
    T @ d0 = 10 9.77199
    T @ d0 = 15 9.76747
    T @ d0 = 20 9.75206

    To calculate g (with adjusted T), we used the following series expansion to adjust our T,
    and then inputted the new values into the formula used above:

    This yielded the results shown below:

    g (with
    adjusted T)
    T @ d0 = 5 9.77898
    T @ d0 = 10 9.77209
    T @ d0 = 15 9.76075
    T @ d0 = 20 9.74517

    RESULTS:

    In this lab we successfully calculated a close estimate of g from measurements of the


    Kater pendulum. Our T adjustment approximation had, however, a larger margin of error
    than our non-adjusted T. This could possibly be because of the small number of degrees
    used in the approximation. Our best final value of g was 9.78128 m/s2, close to the
    accepted value of 9.81 m/s2 within 0.04%. We also observed a linear connection between
    amplitude and period, which is shown in the following graph.

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