Pendulum Experiment: Investigating An Oscillating System
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Investigating an oscillating system
Topic: Pendulum (Thomas Ching Y10H)
Aim:
To investigate the relationship between the time period of a pendulum and the length of the string that holds the pendulum. I would change the length of the string and conduct 6 trials to observe the chance in time period. Any other variables will not be changed to merely test the impact of the strength length on the pendulum.
Hypothesis:
The longer the length of the string holding the pendulum, the longer the time period would be. Likewise, if the string is short, it will lead to a shorter time period. This is due to the length of the string equals to the amplitude, as the string represents the amplitude, which is the displacement of the pendulum from the equilibrium position. When released from the same angle, the pendulum will swing to the same angle at the opposite side. If the amplitude is longer, the pendulum needs to cover more distance than a pendulum with short amplitude. This only happens since the pendulum with the short amplitude and the pendulum with the long amplitude will swing to the same angle. In conclusion to the hypothesis, pendulum with a long string would need longer time (compared to a pendulum with a short string) to complete one vibration, which is also known as a period. The picture below shows the difference between…show more content… Those physics rules actually have a certain impact on the results we tested. The pendulum works when you pull it to a side and release it, causing it to swing to the opposite side and comes back at the angle you swung it from. The pendulum will then swing back to the equilibrium because of gravitational pull. However, the pendulum won’t stop at the equilibrium yet since there is still kinetic energy in the pendulum. The back and forth motion continues itself until the kinetic energy is weaker than the