Activity 1.

1 Period of a simple pendulum

Time allocation: 45 minutes Apparatus: statif, metal ball (bob), string, ruler, scissor, stopwatch and graph paper. Resources: T. Duncan & H. Kennett, pg. 47 & D. Sang, pg. 9.

Introduction: A pendulum oscillates repeatedly with a constant time period. The time for one swing of a pendulum, from left to right and back again is called its period. This is the time interval between successive passes in the same direction through the centre of the oscillations (i.e. its position when at rest). Steps: To measure its period: - Place a reference marker directly under the pendulums rest position and observe the pendulum as it repeatedly moves past the marker. - Ensure the line of sight to the marker is at right angles to the plane in which the pendulum oscillates. - Time how long the pendulum takes to undergo a measured number of at least 10 oscillations of the pendulum from when it passes the marker in a certain position. - To calculate the time period, divide the average time for the measured number of oscillations by the number of oscillations or . Repeat the steps by varying the length of pendulum to obtain 10 data. Questions: The period of the simple pendulum is given by: T = 2
g where is the length of the pendulum and g,

the acceleration due to gravity. (a) Explain how you can rearrange the equation above to find g, the acceleration due to gravity using a graphical approach. Hence, using the data collected, plot the graph T2 against to determine the value of g. You need graph paper to plot the graph. (b) Based on the graph on (a), explain the relation between the square period of pendulum (T2) and the length of the pendulum (). Hint: Typical set of data obtained:
/m 0.900 0.800 0.700 0.600 0.500 0.400 t1 / s 37.90 35.70 33.90 32.00 28.20 25.00 t2 / s 38.10 35.90 33.70 30.00 28.00 25.20 t /s 38.00 35.80 33.80 31.00 28.10 25.10 T/ s 1.900 1.790 1.690 1.550 1.405 1.255 T 2 / s2 3.610 3.204 2.856 2.403 1.974 1.575

Footnote: original column /cm is converted to /m and column T /s

2 4 Square both sides of the equation: T2 = 42 g = g .

2 4 Plot a graph of T2 against . By equating the gradient of the straight-line graph to ( g ), the value of g can be computed. The value of g obtained using the graphical method should be within the range of 9.7 to 9.9 m s-2.

IGCSE Physics-Sampoerna Academy Bogor