Investigating Factors that Affect the Swinging Of a Pendulum

Investigating Factors that Affect the Swinging Of a Pendulum

Aim

Our aim is to find out whether changing the variables of the swinging

pendulum affects the speed.

Preliminary Work

In order to find out which variable/s affect the swinging of a

pendulum, I need to test all the variables available.

There are three variables we will be investigating:

* The length of the string

* The mass of the pendulum

* The angle from which the pendulum is swung

For each experiment, I will change the length/mass/angle five times,

and repeat each length/mass/angle just once. Therefore, I will be

doing a total of 15 experiments.

Experiment 1

I will investigate the relationship between the length of the string,

and the time it takes for the pendulum to make 1 full swing.

Ø Hypothesis: As the length of the string increases, so does the time.

Ø Procedure: We will test how long it takes for a 80g weight attached

to a string to swing from one point and back to the same point. We

will use various lengths of string to test the times of the swing.

However, I will measure the time taken for 10 oscillations rather that

1 and then divide the result by 10, in order to eliminate as much time

and reaction error as possible.

Exp 1

Changing Length (variable)

Mass = 80g

Angle = 5o

Length (in metres)

Time (in seconds)

(for 10 swings)

Time (in seconds)

(for 1 swing)

L1 - 0.5

= 16.46 secs

1.65

L2 - 0.4

= 13.98 secs

1.40

L3 - 0.3

= 12.42

1.24

L4 - 0.2

= 10.91

1.09

L5 - 0.1

= 8.71

0.87

These results show me that the length of the string does affect the

time for the pendulum to swing.