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Experiment 5 Title: Acceleration of Free Fall by Means of The Simple Pendulum. Objective

This lab experiment aims to show how the time of oscillation of a pendulum depends on the length of its cord and to determine the gravity acceleration constant. Students will measure the time for 20 oscillations of a pendulum bob suspended from cords of decreasing length. They will record the timing results in a table and plot a graph of period time squared versus cord length. The slope of the best-fit line through the data points will equal the gravity acceleration constant, allowing students to calculate its value.

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Ream Mair
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533 views2 pages

Experiment 5 Title: Acceleration of Free Fall by Means of The Simple Pendulum. Objective

This lab experiment aims to show how the time of oscillation of a pendulum depends on the length of its cord and to determine the gravity acceleration constant. Students will measure the time for 20 oscillations of a pendulum bob suspended from cords of decreasing length. They will record the timing results in a table and plot a graph of period time squared versus cord length. The slope of the best-fit line through the data points will equal the gravity acceleration constant, allowing students to calculate its value.

Uploaded by

Ream Mair
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MF006 General Physics 1 Lab Manual 05

Experiment 5

Title: Acceleration of free fall by means of the simple pendulum.

Objective:
1. To show how the time of oscillation of pendulum depends on the length of cord
2. To determine the gravity acceleration constant

Learning outcome:
Upon the completion of the experiment, the student will be able to find the relation between
periodic times of oscillation to length of cord and determine gravity acceleration constant from
experiment.

Apparatus:
Pendulum bob (e.g. a metal sphere with a hook attached, or with a hole bored through its center),
string, stop-watch, meter scale, stand and clamp

Procedure:
1. Tie a one metre length of the cotton to the pendulum bob and suspend the cotton from the
jaws of an improvised vice, such as two wooden plates held in a clamp.
2. Place a piece of paper with a vertical mark on it behind the pendulum so that when the
latter is at rest it hides the vertical mark from an observer standing in front of the
pendulum.
3. Measure the length L of the cotton from the point of suspension to the point of
attachment to the bob.
4. Set the pendulum bob swinging through a small arc of about 10°. With a stop-watch
measure the time for 20 complete oscillations, setting the watch going when the
pendulum passes the vertical mark and stopping it 20 complete oscillations later when it
passes the mark in the same direction. Repeat the timing and record both times.
5. Shorten the length of the pendulum by successive amounts of about 10 cm by pulling the
cotton through the vice and for each new length take two observations of the time for 20
oscillations.
6. Record down the reading and tabulated the result into the table below.

Results:
Time for 20 oscillations Time for 1 oscillation
Length of pendulum T2/s2
(period time)T/s
L/m
t1/s t2/s t3/s Mean t/s
MF006 General Physics 1 Lab Manual 05

Plot a graph with values of T²/s² as ordinates against the corresponding values of L/m
Experimental Details:
1. When counting the oscillations remember to say "nought" when the stop-watch is started,
for if you start at "one" and stop and "fifty", only 49 oscillations have been timed.
2. Be careful to count complete oscillations and not "swings" which are only half a
complete oscillation.
3. Should the oscillations of the pendulum bob become elliptical at any time the timing
should be rejected, the pendulum stopped and set oscillating again and a new timing
made.

Theory and Calculations:


The periodic time T of a simple pendulum l is given by

l
T =2
√ g

where g is the acceleration of free fall. Since, in this experiment

l=L+¿

where ε is the extra constant length to the center of gravity of the bob,

T =2 L+ ¿ ¿
and
√ g

2 42 42
T = L+
g g

from which it is seen that the graph of T2 against L will be a straight line whose slope m,
measured from two convenient and well separated pints P and Q on the line, is numerically equal
42
to
g
42
Thus m=
g

42
g=
m

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