Pendulum Investigation

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Pendulum Investigation

Plan

Aim

To investigate how the length of a simple pendulum will affect the

time for a full swing.

Variables

Length

The length of the pendulum has a large effect on the time for a

complete swing. As the pendulum gets longer the time increases. As the

pendulum gets shorter the time decreases.

Air resistance

A big and light pendulum bobble would be affected by a major amount of

air resistance. This might cause the pendulum to move in a different

way.

With a little pendulum bobble there is very small air resistance. This

can easily be observed because it takes an extended time for the

pendulum to stop swinging, so only a small amount of energy is lost on

each swing.

Gravity

The pendulum is motivated by the force of gravity acting on it.

The more gravity the shorter time it will take for a complete swing.

The less gravity the longer it would take for a complete swing

Size of swing

The size of the swing does not have large effect on the time.

Mass

The mass of the pendulum does not affect the time at all.

Prediction

The diagram shows the arcs through which two pendulums swing. The red

one is twice the length of the black one. The black arc is always at a

steeper angle than the red arc, and always above it.

The black pendulum has the most gravitational potential energy at the

top of the swing because it is higher. This means the kinetic energy

and speed through the centre will also be greater.

The steeper the arc the greater the acceleration of the pendulum will

be. A greater acceleration means a shorter time for each swing. The

blue arc has the steepest gradient at the top and is flat when it

reaches the middle. The acceleration of the bobble will decrease from

a maximum at the top of the swing to zero at the centre.

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