This pendulum lab’s objective is to describe how the back-and-forth motion of a pendulum can be changed through measuring the properties of a pendulum, as well as determine which properties of a pendulum affects its period. Groups of generally four students created their own pendulum, all materials provided in the classroom, and each group tested how three different properties affect the period of the pendulum, which includes the amplitude, the mass, and the string length. While testing these different things, each student wrote down their experiment, as well as the details and results. With this information, the students created graphs that exemplify how these characteristics impacted the cycle and the period of the pendulum.
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With this lab, groups of students had to design an experiment and keep a table of data which determined what variables had the biggest effect on the period of the pendulum. The groups constructed their own pendulum with a post, a pendulum hanger with angle measures, four washers, and a pendulum bob on a string. The students allowed the pendulum to travel three cycles for every trial or test run, and then divided the number by three to find the time of one individual period. With the constructed pendulum, students then, using their phone as a timer and a meter stick to measure the length of the pendulum bob, created a table which compared the plot period vs the string length, and compared the lengths of .25 meters, .5 meters. .75 meters. and 1 meter, each consisting three individual trials. It was found that as the length of the string extended, the period did as well. The second experiment the class conducted, involved the determining of how the mass changed the time each cycle took. Students tested this with the use of four washers, and tested how the mass affects the speed of a cycle by timing three trials of the pendulum with no washers, one washer, two washers, three washers, and four washers. By testing this experiment, it was found that there was no huge effect on the period of the pendulum, no matter if there was no washer or four washers. The last assessment was one on the amplitude of the pendulum, and how it influenced the cycle and the period of the cycle; however, what differs, is that the group had four washers on the pendulum bob, while conducting this experiment. With three separate angles of ten, twenty, and thirty, groups saw how the angle impacted the period of each trial, and saw a general, although minimal, decline as the angle decreased in number. With each trial of every subject tested, groups found the average for each category, and created plots that represented the pendulum swings and their properties.
While there was data used, which answered the objective of the experiment of whether the period of a pendulum is able to be changed and what changes the cycle, there are many other aspects that must be discussed. Although students found that there was no real difference between the use of having no washers and having four washers, if able to, students could have the possibility of finding a difference between no washers on the pendulum bob and sixty washers; if there was the use of larger amounts of washers to increase the mass, there could have been a bigger difference on how the pendulum swing is affected. The same could be applied with the amplitude, a group that tests the difference between an amplitude of ten, twenty, and thirty; if tested with a larger difference, students could have the ability to find a bigger difference. There could also be many chances of mistrials during the experiment, as the individuals controlling the timer could innacurately find the information, as the students had to retake multiple sections of the testing of length and mass. Not only could there be a problem in the use of the timer during the experiment, but when testing the effect of amplitude, students had four washers on the pendulum bob, which could have influenced the results. There is no exact outlier throughout the experiment, and individuals found that while the length did have a seeable effect on the period, the mass and the amplitude did not; however, individuals who used a bigger difference of washers or a larger difference in the amplitudes tested could have found a different result.
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