How Surface Area Affected Period

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Caption: This graph shows how surface area affected period. Trend Statement: When surface area increased, period time remained somewhat constant. However with pieces of paper, paper with higher surface areas had a longer period because they were affected more by air resistance the more surface area they had. Items: 1- 10 gram weight and 3 paper clips 2- protractor and 2 rubber bands 3- wooden ruler 4- 13 paper clips and 1 rubber band 5- 20.3x13.3cm paper and paper clip 6- 10.2x13.3cm paper and paper clip 7- 10.2x6.4cm paper and paper clip 8- paper ball and a paper clip Paper measurements are dimensions of one face. Mass of all paper is the same. Conclusion: Part 1: During the lab, the hypothesis for the first experiment that changing…show more content…
Mass, surface area, and drop height thereby should stay the same regardless of the pendulum. Only air resistance alters period time due to air resistance affecting objects differently based on position, surface area, and other factors. In all of the experiments, we used the mathematical equation (time of)1 Period= (time of) 10 Periods/10. I felt this equation could be used because Galileo’s law of the pendulum would say that the pendulum time remains the same for each swing. The reason a slight downward variation may have occurred is because air resistance caused the pendulum to slow down. The first graph which depicted change in period time with varied mass showed a linear line with a non-substantial slope since it was extremely close to zero slope. The Y intercept was about 1.67 which represents somewhat close to the average of the data points. The (pretty much) zero slope and Y intercept make sense because since their was no change, there would not be a slope and the Y intercept would be at the average of the data points. The graph showed a linear graph which would make sense since mass did not affect period. For the second graph which showed…show more content…
The first of these errors (imprecise measurement tools) may be the reason that the period times slightly varied in the experiments in which period time was measured. Because the measurement tools could not sense the motion of the pendulum, the tools could not precisely locate the moment when the pendulum stopped and changed direction, nor the moment the pendulum was released. This error would have made more of a difference if a smaller test group was examined, but since we used a large group of data, it was determined the fluctuation (of about .05 percent) was an error and it was taken into account for measurements. To determine the relationship between mass and period, different massed weights were used, with different surface areas. The difference in surface areas may have caused slight variation (around .05%) within the affect of air resistance on the object which in turn may have caused the variation in period times. In the surface area experiment, the use of different types of objects may have caused small variation (around .02%) in period time because the different materials may be differently affected by period time. In all of our experiments, measurement tool imprecision caused differences in the drop height (slight variation (around .04%))

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