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Physics in Practice long report.

Title: Simple Pendulum.

Abstract: This experiment was carried out to determine a value for the acceleration due to gravity g. The periods of a simple pendulum were timed and recorded for each of the ten variations in the length of the pendulum. In addition, uncertainty in time was determined to eliminate errors in calculations. The experiment was repeated to obtain two datasets. Using this data and the relationship by the formula

where l is the length of the pendulum,

is its period, and g is the acceleration due to

gravity, the final result was calculated as g = (9.79 0.03) m/s.

Introduction: A pendulum is just a mass suspended on the end of the attached string that is free to swing. The pendulum was first known and used back in ancient China in 5 th century, and then developed by Galileo at around 1602 [5] [4]. He discovered the key property that makes pendulums useful timekeeper that is the period of the pendulum is approximately independent of the amplitude (width) of its swing, so that successive swings of the pendulum will take the same amount of time even if the swing is decreasing due to friction. He also found that the period of a pendulum is independent of the mass of its bob and proportional to the square root of its length [4]. Also it was realised that the pendulum could be used to calculate acceleration due to gravity and first who came up with that was Francis Bacon in 1620 [5]. It has been realised that simple pendulum exactly behaves as a simple harmonic motion. Simple harmonic motion is periodic motion in which the restoring force is proportional to the displacement [2]. In other words, in simple harmonic motion the displacement of an object frequently changes over time, following the same shape as a cosine curve when plotted on a displacement versus time graph. However, the velocity behaves completely different, when the displacement of the pendulum is at a maximum; the velocity is at a minimum (zero). Furthermore, when the displacement

from the equilibrium point is at a minimum the velocity is at its maximum. Thus it is a perfect point to time the pendulum. The value of g is not the same throughout the Earth surface, because the Earth has a slightly oblate shape (flattened at the poles) caused by the centrifugal force of its rotation, so gravity increased with latitude. In other words, surface of the Earth is not flat or smooth enough, thus different parts have different distance from its centre. This means that the gravity is less when an object far away from the Earth centre, for instance, at mountain side, and higher when it is closer to it [5]. It has to be taken into account all these differences in value of g before comparing the calculated value for g. However, there is average accepted value for g which is 9.80665 m/s2 and used as a pattern to see whether the experimental value is in reasonable range of this pattern. This experiment was conducted to find the value of object acceleration due to gravity by using simple pendulums. This was done by timing the period of the attached string with varying amplitude and using the gradient of a fitted line graph to calculate a value for g. The period of a simple pendulum in the small-angle approximation is related to its

length l by the formula

where l is the length of the pendulum, is its period, and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Alternatively, this may be written as

Both of these expressions are equations for a straight line.

Equipment: Simple pendulum experiment was done by using the essential elements of the apparatus. This consists of retort stand with a thread that is inextensible, taut and massless, and the bob swings on rod, and a ruler to measure varying length of the string, and stopwatch. The ruler was a metre rule, with centimetre and millimetre etchings. The retort stand allowed the pendulum to hang freely over the edge of the table, if the pendulums length required it.

Diagrams: A sketch showing the essential elements of the apparatus is presented in Figure 1. below:

Figure 1. Experimental set-up [1].

Methods: This experiment was done to find out the value of object acceleration due to gravity by using simple pendulums. First of all, stand was fixed; iron ball was suspended to one metre long thread and then observer brings the pendulum into motion. However, before the experiment begins experimenters should determine the uncertainty in timing the pendulums swing. To avoid all this errors, in reaction time and ability to see where the bob actually is, observers had to make separate measurement to estimate this uncertainty. Therefore, the stopwatch was used to time one period of pendulum, and then repeated twenty times using roughly 10 cm length (horizontal displacement) of pendulum. The reason why twenty oscillations were timed is because it is more accurate to time several oscillations than to time just one oscillation. Added to that, to time only one oscillation the answer is going to be the approximate number, but more repetition of oscillation allows getting more accurate approximate number. In other words, repetitions increase possibility of receiving more precise answer. However, if twenty oscillations are timed and then the uncertainty on individual time measurements was calculated, it is easier for experimenters to apply this uncertainty in time later on. The pendulum was allowed to oscillate by observers and started to time when it passed through its equilibrium position with stopwatchs uncertainty 0.10 seconds,
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which was found previously. Once the pendulum had completed ten oscillations the measurements were displayed and recorded in lab book. The length of the pendulum was then adjusted by experimenters using the metre ruler and the process was repeated. Measurements were done for each of the ten lengths. The string was then returned to its original length and the entire method was repeated, thus obtaining two sets of readings, Dataset A and Dataset B. Furthermore, during this experiment there was a parallax error relating with observing oscillations. To resolve that experimenters placed a pencil such that the equilibrium position of pendulum was in the same line.

Analysis: After the experiment the results were collected and plotted in the table, to find out the acceleration due to gravity . The table below shows the measurement of the period of the simple pendulum with varying length with calculated values of square root of length, and squared period, and its uncertainties.
Dataset A L (m) 0.200 0.300 0.400 0.500 0.600 0.700 0.800 0.900 1.000 1.100 t (s) 0.626 0.889 1.105 1.261 1.420 1.555 1.679 1.798 1.901 2.000 L (m) 0.447 0.548 0.632 0.707 0.775 0.837 0.894 0.949 1.000 1.049 t (s) 0.392 0.790 1.221 1.590 2.016 2.418 2.819 3.233 3.614 4.000 t (s) 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 t (s) 0.00626 0.00889 0.01105 0.01261 0.0142 0.01555 0.01679 0.01798 0.01901 0.02

Dataset B L (m) 0.200 0.300 0.400 0.500 0.600 0.700 0.800

t (s) 0.989 1.196 1.370 1.522 1.651 1.782 1.892

L (m) 0.447 0.548 0.632 0.707 0.775 0.837 0.894 4

t (s) 0.978 1.430 1.877 2.316 2.726 3.176 3.580

t (s) 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005 0.005

t (s) 0.00989 0.01196 0.0137 0.01522 0.01651 0.01782 0.01892

0.900 1.000 1.100

1.992 2.095 2.208

0.949 1.000 1.049

3.968 4.389 4.875

0.005 0.005 0.005

0.01992 0.02095 0.02208

Based on these two tables four graphs were created two for each table using Microsoft Excel. Therefore, the Polynomial.Fit macro was used to fit best fit line for each graph. Graph A1

T vs L
2.500

2.000 Time period (s)

1.500 Dataset A 1.000 Best Line of Fit

0.500

0.000 0.000

0.200

0.400 0.600 0.800 Square Root of Length (m )

1.000

1.200

Points DegFreedom ChiSquared ProbChi CoeffNo 0 1

10 8 125.0718931 2.96631E-23 Value -0.35070924 2.263565863 Uncertainty 0.006745907 0.008367268

The value of acceleration of free fall could be derived from the gradient of this time period of a pendulum swing against the square root of length graph, and equation which mentioned above

The gradient,

, of Graph A1 is given by

Then the equation is rearranged to find .

where

is the gradient, which is given in the polynomial fit information box as the

value of Coeff No 1, so

m/s2 The uncertainty on this value can also be determined using the general error propagation formula and the uncertainty on , given in the polynomial fit box as the Uncertainty of Coeff No 1.

( (

( ) (

) )

) (

) (

)(

)
m/s2

(
Hence, the value for

)(

as derived from graph A1, is

) m/s2

Graph A2

T^2 vs l
4.500 4.000 Time period squared (s^2) 3.500 3.000 2.500 2.000 1.500 1.000 0.500 0.000 0.000 0.200 0.400 0.600 Length (m) 0.800 1.000 1.200 Dataset A Best line of Fit

Points DegFreedom ChiSquared ProbChi CoeffNo 0 1

10 8 8.366646869 0.398498636 Value -0.413258933 4.034641025 Uncertainty 0.007099948 0.013826226

The value of acceleration of free fall could be derived from the gradient of this time period of a pendulum swing squared against length graph, and equation which mentioned above

The gradient,

, of Graph A2 is given by

Then the equation is rearranged to find

where

is the gradient, which is given in the polynomial fit information box as the

value of Coeff No 1, so

m/s2 The uncertainty on this value can also be determined using the general error propagation formula and the uncertainty on , given in the polynomial fit box as the Uncertainty of Coeff No 1.

( (

( ) (

) )

) (

) (

)(

)
m/s2

(
Hence, the value for

)(

as derived from graph A2, is

) m/s2

Graph B1

T vs L
2.500 2.000 Time period (s) 1.500 Dataset A 1.000 Best Line of Fit 0.500 0.000 0.000

0.200

0.400

0.600

0.800

1.000

1.200

Square Root of Length (m )

Points DegFreedom ChiSquared ProbChi CoeffNo 0 1

10 8 12.37375148 0.135290806 Value 0.097984246 2.005334304 Uncertainty 0.006745907 0.008367268

The same calculations, based on graph A1, were applied for graph B1.

9.82 m/s2

)(

(
(

)(

)
) m/s2

m/s2

Graph B2

T^2 vs l
4.500 Time period squared (s^2) 4.000 3.500 3.000 2.500 2.000 1.500 1.000 0.500 0.000 0.000 0.200 0.400 0.600 Length (m) 0.800 1.000 1.200 Dataset A Best line of Fit

Points DegFreedom ChiSquared ProbChi CoeffNo 0 1

10 8 21.56480706 0.005789175 Value 0.139735878 4.294730422 Uncertainty 0.009928823 0.017207396

The same calculations, based on graph A2, were applied for graph B2.

m/s2
10

)(

)
m/s2

)(

) m/s2

This experiment was conducted to calculate the value of weighted average of value

and to do so, the

for each dataset should be considered. In other words,

chi-square is the best fit, which has the smallest distance between the data points and the best line of fit of the graph, consequently it must be worked out. As chi-square is expected to approximate the number of data points, the validity of a fit can be determined by the proximity of the reduced chi-square, , which is given by

where

is the number of degrees of freedom, which is the number of parameters

subtracted from the number of data points. For each of the graphs, = 8, as given in the polynomial fit boxes. Chi-square itself is also given in each box, allowing the calculation of the reduced chi-square.

Using the smallest reduced

results the best fitted line was found for each dataset

which is and and the value for were calculated using the following weighted mean equation with its uncertainty
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for each of the best fitting lines

where is the weighted mean , i is the value of and i is the error on each correlating .

m/s2

Conclusion: This experiment was carried out to calculate the value for the acceleration of an object due to gravity near the Earths surface, which appears to be 9.79 0.03 m/s2. Despite the accepted value of g which is 9.80665 m/s2 the result is very close to the accepted value of g. The calculated value of g is not perfect because there are errors in the way the experiment had been done, for example, human reaction on measurements when it comes to starting and stopping the stopwatch at the equilibrium position of the pendulum. Therefore, it is important to take into account the systematic error in any measurement of the length. Also the way which is taken to solve parallax error is not sufficient and reliable. All this errors contribute some uncertainties on the determining the value of g. What this experiment has confirmed is that, the theories involving the relationship between a simple pendulum and the acceleration due to gravity are correct. Furthermore, despite the notable errors the result is within the range of statistical acceptability and so the experiment can be described as successful.

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Bibliography:

[1] Tutorvista. 2010. Measurement and Experimentation. [WWW] http://www.tutorvista.com/content/physics/physics-i/measurement-andexperimentation/simple-pendulum.php (08 December 2012). [2] Macmillan Dictionary. 2009. Definitions. [WWW] http://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/oscillation (06 December 2012). [3] Warren, D. 1997. Writing Lab Reports and Scientific Papers. [WWW] http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/maderinquiry/writing.html (08 December 2012). [4] Connexions. 2004. Galileo and the Pendulum. [WWW] http://cnx.org/content/m11929/latest/ (08 December 2012). [5] Wikipedia. 2012. Pendulum. [WWW] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendulum (07 December 2012).

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