EXPERIMENT ON SIMPLE PENDULUM

NAME
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2.
3.
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5.
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SUBMITTED TO

DATE:- 04/07/2022
Objective
Theory
Pendulum is the back and forth movement of a bob of mass (m), that is hanged by a string
length (L), and fixed at pivot point(P).

When a pendulum is displaced sideways from it’s resting, equilibrium position, it’s subjected to
a restoring force due to gravity that will accelerate it back toward the equilibrium position.
When released, the restoring force acting on the pendulum’s mass causes it to oscillate about
the equilibrium position, swinging back and forth. The Restoring force is

F=-mgsinʘ

By measuring the period as well as the length of the string we can determine gravitational
acceleration. The time for one complete cycle a left swing and a right swing is called the Period.
So we will try to find gravitational acceleration when different parameters of the pendulum
changes like period and length of the string.

T = 2π l
√ g
From the above formula we can find the relationship between gravitational acceleration, length
of the string and the period.
2
4π l
g= t 2

From this formula gravitational acceleration is directly proportional to length of the string and
inversely proportional to the square of period.
Apparatus

 Bob(mass of pendulum)
 Ruler(meter stick)
 Stop Watch
 String or Rope
 Simple Pendulum base with stand
Experimental Setup
Procedures
1. First, the pendulum is constructed using string, Bob, and the pendulum’s base with
stand.
2. For the First experiment, the measured length of the string was 0.39m. After measuring
the length of the string the bob was released from small angle Ɵ then the period was
recorded for 10 oscillations(cycles) using stopwatch. This process is repeated for three
trials. The period recorded for trial 1, trial 2 and trial 3 was 12.01s, 12.13s and 11.79s
respectively.
3. For the Second experiment, the measured length of the string was 0.415m. After
measuring the length of the string the bob was released from small angle Ɵ then the
period was recorded for 10 oscillations(cycles) using stopwatch. This process is repeated
for three trials. The period recorded for trial 1, trial 2 and trial 3 was 12.75s, 12.25s and
12.73s respectively.
4. For the Third experiment, the measured length of the string was 0.325m. Then the
process on the above experiments was repeated. Then the period recorded for trial 1,
trial 2 and trial 3 was 10.86s, 10.99s and 10.42s respectively.
5. For the Fourth experiment, the measured length of the string was 0.275m. Then the
process on the above experiments was repeated. Then the period recorded for trial 1,
trial 2 and trial 3 was 9.95s, 9.93s and 9.96s respectively.
6. The average period for each experiment is calculated by adding the time of the trials
then divide it to the number of trials. The average period for Experiment 1,Experiment
2,Experiment 3 and Experiment 4 recorded is 11.98s, 12.58s, 10.76s and 9.95s
respectively.
7. The Texp is calculated for each experiment by dividing the average period by number of
oscillation. The calculated data for Experiment 1, Experiment 2, Experiment 3 and
Experiment 4 is 1.198s, 1,258s, 1.076s and 0.995s respectively.
8. Finally, the data founded by the above experiments was recorded on a table.
Data (Result)
Numbe L(m) t1(s) t2(s) t3(s) tavg Texp T2 g gavg
r (tavg/n)
1 0.39 12.09 12.13 11.79 11.98 1.198 1.435 10.73

2 0.415 12.75 12.25 12.73 12.58 1.258 1.582 10.36

4 0.275 9.95 9.96 9.96 9.95 0.995 0.990 10.97

By using the general formula for simple pendulum,

 Experiment 1
2
4π l
g= 2
t
2
4 π 0.39 m
g= =10.73 2
1.435 s
 Experiment 2
2
4π l
g= 2
t
2
4 π 0.415 m
g= =10.36 2
1.582 s
 Experiment 3
2
4π l
g= 2
t
2
4 π 0.325 m
g= =11.08 2
1.158 s
 Experiment 4
2
4π l
g= 2
t
2
4 π 0.275 m
g= =10.97 2
0.99 s

Then, the average gravitational acceleration will be

m m m m
gava=¿ ¿10.73 2 +10.36 2 +11.08 2 + ¿10.97 2
s s s s
m
gava=¿ ¿10.79 2
s

Error
│T −E │
Error = ×100 %
T
 │9.81−10.79│
Error = × 100 %
9.81

│−0.98 │
Error = ×100 %
9.81
Error =0.092×100 % =9.2%

Source of error
1. The air resistance between the bob and the surrounding is one source of
error.
2. The angle between the equilibrium position and the position which the bob
is released is not always the same for all trials which causes another error.
3. The reading from the stick ruler is not accurate which is another source of
error.
4. The reaction time when measuring by stopwatch is also the source of error.
Conclusion
Reference
Google
Wikipedia