In this experiment you will make a simple pendulum consisting of a plumb bob and a piece of string anchored at two points. By attaching the string to two points the normal precession that would occur will be eliminated.
[pic] Items to be turned in as report:
1) all discussion question answers (be thorough)
2) graph of period squared versus length
3) simple data tables of collected data
4) graphical analysis answers
5) using your values for g, calculate average deviation and average percent error (using 9.807 m/s2 as theoretical value)
6) overall conclusions about the experiment (using normal lab report conclusion format)
The Simple Pendulum: An Exercise in Measurement and Graphical Analysis A phenomena which repeats some action over and over again in a regular way is said to be periodic. The time for such a system to exactly complete the repetitive action once is called the period. For example, the period of the Earth in its orbit is one year and the period of your heartbeat is about one second. Periodic phenomena are very common in nature and when they are sufficiently reliable they are sometimes used to measure time. One of the simplest devices which exhibit periodic motion is the simple pendulum. A simple pendulum consists of a heavy object suspended by a light weight string. If you displace the bob to one side and release it, then the period is the time for the bob to return to the point of release. This lab exercise uses a simple pendulum to illustrate how one can learn something about natural phenomena by a combination of measurement and graphical analysis. This simple experiment illustrates a technique used by scientist in many fields. The scientist wishes to understand some physical system which in this case is the simple pendulum. He identifies some important property of the system like the period of the pendulum. Then he tries to determine how this quantity depends on other