University of Dubai

College of Engineering and IT

GPHY 100 General Physics 1
Laboratory Experiment No.7
Experiment title: Circular Motion & Oscillation

Done by ID
1.Tilahun Chekole 4035
2.Daniel Fantahun 3925
3. Dejene Ashenu 3992

Aim:
Understand the principles of the Circular motion

Objectives:
- Understand the angular displacement and angular velocity
- Learn how to convert from angular to linear quantities
- Study the total linear acceleration of a point on a rotating object
- Develop and modify the LabVIEW to implement a specific task

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Risk Assessment: Medium. The students should be careful while they are using
the Catapult arm.

Introduction
The Circular motion is a two-dimension motion. To describe rotational motion, we make use of
angular quantities, such as angular velocity and angular acceleration. These are defined in
analogy to the corresponding quantities in linear motion, and are chosen to describe the rotating
object as a whole, so they have the same value for each point in the rotating object. Each point in
a rotating object also has translational velocity and acceleration, but they have different values
for different points in the object.
When an object, such as the bicycle wheel in Figure 1, rotates from some initial position,
specified by to some final position, its angular displacement is
∆ θ=θ2−θ 1

The angular velocity (ω ) is defined in analogy with linear (translational) velocity. Instead of
linear displacement, we use the angular displacement. Thus the average angular velocity of an
object rotating about a fixed axis is defined as the time rate of change of angular position:
∆θ
ω= (1)
∆t
Angular velocity has units of radians per second. Note that all points in a rigid object rotate with
the same angular velocity, since every position in the object moves through the same angle in the
same time interval. An object such as the wheel in Figure 1 can rotate about a fixed axis either
clockwise or counterclockwise. The usual convention for the sign of the direction is to choose
the angular displacement and angular velocity as positive when the wheel rotates
counterclockwise. If the rotation is clockwise, then would decrease, so ω and ∆ θ would be
negative.

Point P

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Figure 1: A wheel rotates from initial position θ1to final position θ2.
The angular displacement is =
2-θ1

A point P on rotating object has a linear acceleration whose direction is tangent to that point’s
circular path a tan an radial acceleration a R whose and its direction is toward the center of the
point’s circular path. The sum of these components is known as the total linear acceleration.
a=a tan +a R (2)

The product of the radius of the circle and the square of the ω is a R .

In a simple pendulum with no friction, to calculate the period (assuming a small angle), we use
the following formula:
Period (T)=2π√ L/g
Where L is the length of the pendulum chord.
Finally, the frequency can be calculated using T: F=1/T

In general, a pendulum is a particle of mass, 𝑚, that is suspended from one end by a string or rod
of length, 𝐿, and is fixed at a pivot at the other end, similar to figure below. The analysis of the
motion of a generalized pendulum is usually simplified to a discussion of a simple pendulum by
assuming that the cable or rod that connects the mass with the pivot is massless and un-
stretchable, and the mass only swings in a two dimensional plane.

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 Simple pendulum

With this simplification, the forces acting on the mass are the force, 𝑇, from the cable or rod,
and the gravitational force, F g, which can be decomposed in its radial component and tangent to

equilibrium when 𝜃 = 0, thus the tangent component can be understood as a restoring torque
the path of the mass component F g cos θ and F g sin θ, respectively. The simple pendulum is at

about the pendulum's pivot towards the equilibrium, i.e.

τ =−L(F g sin θ) (3)

Here, 𝐿 is the length of the massless, unstretchable pendulum cable, F g is the gravitational force
and 𝜃 is the angle between the actual and equilibrium position of the mass from the pivot.

about the pivot, 𝐼, and the angular acceleration, 𝛼, as

The torque of the mass can also be expressed as the product of the rotational inertia of that mass

τ =Iα (4)

sin 𝑥 vs. 𝑥

It is customary to linearize 𝜃 ≈ sin θ for small angles 𝜃, 𝜃 in radians, as demonstrated in

figure above. With this approximation, and noting Equation 3 and Equation 4, we find

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 −mgL
α= θ (5)
I

While the angular speed for the simple pendulum can be obtained as
ω=
mgL
I√ (6)

thus yielding
T =2 π
√ I
mgL
(7)

The moment of Inertia for the rod is calculated as

2
ML
I rod =
3

Equipment/Components
QNET Physics and Dynamics board for NI ELVES

Abstract

F
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The content of task1 includes investigation of the angular displacement, angular velocity as well
as angular acceleration of rotating objects. The experiment also involves interpretation of
angular parameters and linear acceleration of a point on a rotating rigid object. This requires the
development and modification of a LabVIEW program capable of executing such experiments.
The experiment aims at finding the angular parameters of a rotating object. The outcome of the
experiment is to provide practical skills and deep theoretical understanding of angular parameters
of rotating objects. Task 2 mainly focuses on finding the period of a pendulum and it also
provides a deep investigation on how to calculate the inertia and torque of a pendulum. The
importance of the task is to understand the motion, gravity, inertia, and centripetal force and
other related physics concepts.

Procedures:
Task1: Angular position and angular velocity
1. Make sure the QNET Physics and Dynamics is securely fasten to the NI ELVIS II.
2. Switch the board on, and make sure that the 5V LED is on.
3. On your computer desktop open the labView program
QNET_Physics_and_Dynamics_Student_Resources_lab\ Physics and Dynamics\IVs\ QNET
P and D – Projectile Motion.
4. Remove the lock key and place it in the first hole.
5. Push the catapult arm down, so it will be at horizontal level
6. Run the program and press Fire button
7. Read the angle of the Catapult arm and angular speed
8. Tabulate the results in Table 1 and make sure you convert to the SI units
9. Take Capture of your results- one result for one case.

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10. Repeat your experiment 3 times.
11. Change the place of the lock key and put in the next hole and repeat the experiment for the
remaining holes.
12. Display the block diagram panel and make sure you understand the flow of the program.

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 13. Modify the block diagram, so it can convert the angle to the radian instead of degree.
14. Capture the results along with modified block diagram, make sure you include the capture in
your lab report.

15. Comment on your results.

Hole Avg. deg Avg.

Angle ω( ) Avg. t (s ) Avg.
number θ s

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 (θ)(deg ) ω¿ 1(s)

Tria rad Tria Tria

Trial Trial (rad) Trial Trial Trial ω( ) Trial
l s l l
1 2 1 2 3 1
3 2 3

1 14 13.9 14.1 0.24 369 562.5 562.5 495 8.6 0.15 0.16 0.19 0.167

2 29.5 29 29 0.508 808.5 527 545 626.5 10.9 0.27 0.3 0.28 0.28

3 44.2 44.3 44.1 0.77 750 632.5 651 677.8 11.8 0.54 0.48 0.54 0.52

59 59.4 59.4 1.03 755.8 755.7 738.2 749.92 13.1 0.49 0.5 0.46 0.48
4
5

16. What do θ and ω represent be very specific to the motion given ?

initial horizontal position, while ω is the time rate of the change in the
θ represents the angular displacement which the catapult arm has when it is fired from its

angular displacement.
17. What is the relationship between θ and ω ? State the equation that supports you answer?
θ and ω are directly proportional from the concept that ω is the measure of how
much the angle the object forms with its initial position changes with time. The formula
that relates them is ω = θ/t
18. Convert the average values of θ and ω to their standard units? You may add a column to
the table above.
The standard units for θ and ω are rad and rad/s respectively and here is the conversion
between the units.
2π rad=360ᵒ,
θ(rad)= θ (deg)π/180ᵒ and
) π/180
deg
ω (rad/s)= ω (
s
19. Calculate the average angular acceleration α .
α (ave )=¿Avg.ω ¿

The calculated values for average angular velocity and average angular acceleration are
given in the following table.

Hole number Avg.

rad
a( 2
)
s

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 1 51.5

2 39

3 20.7

4 27.3
20. A point at the free edge of catapult has total linear acceleration that is the sum of the
radial and tangential components. Calculate the radial component. What is the direction

The radial acceleration is calculated using the formula arad=-v2/r=- ω 2r,

of this acceleration?

where r is the catapult arm length which is 0.229m.

Number of hole Radial

acceleration(rad/s2)
1 16.9
2 27.21
3 31.89
4 39.3

Task 2: Calculating Period and Frequency of a Simple Pendulum

In general, a pendulum is a particle of mass, 𝑚, that is suspended from one end by a string or rod
of length, 𝐿, and is fixed at a pivot at the other end, similar to Figure below. The analysis of the
motion of a generalized pendulum is usually simplified to a discussion of a simple pendulum by
assuming that the cable or rod that connects the mass with the pivot is massless and
unstrechable, and the mass only swings in a two dimensional plane.

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 Figure 3: Simple pendulum

1. Position the NI ELVIS II so that the sliding mass arm is parallel to the table edge.
2. Place 100g mass with rod of length 15.24 cm, as the pendulum experiment, shown on your
board. The length of the 100 g mass (l 1 ) is 25.4mm. The figure is shown below.
3. Open the QNET P and D - Pendulum.vi. Make sure the correct Device is chosen.
4. Run the VI, and slightly perturb the pendulum by around 10°, small angle. You should see an
oscillatory movement in the VI.
5. Report the angle value.
θ =11.2ᵒ

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6. Release the pendulum at that reported angle.
7. Ensure that you have captured at least 5 periods. Capture you graph

8. Click on the Stop button to stop the VI.

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9. Use the Graph palette to determine the period of the oscillation. Support your answer by
capturing the graph.

T=t2-t1
T=3.1-2.35=0.75s

10. Calculate the period of the oscillation, compare your results with the calculated.
T=2 π √ I /mgL, where I =moment of inertia
I=mr2= (0.1)(0.1524)2=2.3x10-3kgm2
T=2 π √ 2.3 X 10−3 /¿ ¿
T=0.779s
11. Use the Graph palette to determine the frequency of the oscillation.
f=1/T
f=1/0.85=1.176Hz
12. What is the moment of inertia?
I=mr2= (0.1)(0.1524)2=2.3x10-3kgm2
13. Calculate the angular speed.
ω=¿2π/T=8.06rad/s
14. Calculate the angular acceleration.
τ
α = , where τ =the torque on the pendulum
I

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 Nm τ =mgsin ( θ ) L=( 0.1 )( 9.80 ) sin ( 11.3 )=2.93 ×10−2
α =12.7rad/s2

15. What is the external torque, given that the rod and the mass is the system?

Nm τ =mgsin ( θ ) L=( 0.1 )( 9.80 ) sin ( 11.3 )=2.93 ×10−2

Conclusion
The first task of the experiment focused on finding the angular parameters of a rotating object.
From the experiment we can conclude that it is possible to find the angular velocity, and angular
acceleration of a rotating object through calculation of the observed experimental results from
LabVIEW program. The rotational motion of an object can be described using angular quantities.
In this experiment, we were able to convert each quantity into different units and find the
acceleration of a rotating object using our experimental results. In the second task we concluded
that the period of a pendulum can be found using the inertia and mass of a suspended body on a
pendulum. A pendulum is a particle of mass suspended from one end by a string of length L and
fixed at the other end. We also found that the torque on the pendulum can be found using the
component of force on the pendulum that results rotation.

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