What Affects the Motion of a Pendulum?

Overview

Objectives/Goals In my project my goal was to see for myself if Galileo's claims about the dependence of a pendulums period on mass, length and amplitude were correct. Methods/Materials 10 weights (40 gr each), screw-eye pivot, string for the pendulum, Measuring tape (cm), protractor, and stopwatch for measurement. Results I discovered that Galileo was only partially correct. He was wrong about the amplitude, even though I actually read that he noticed the changes in the period but he disregarded them. Conclusions/Discussion I confirmed two of Galileo's observations regarding the period of a pendulum.I also measured the gravitational acceleration constant g and got a pretty good approximate value of 9.87 meters per seconds squared (about a 0.6% error from the known value of 9.81 meters per seconds squared). Also, I found that my hypothesis regarding the dependence on amplitude was correct, the period increases with the increase of the amplitude. It seems that Galileo was wrong, although according to some books, Galileo himself measured that there was a dependence on amplitude but did not believe it. Scientists today know that this dependence exists.

Competition history

• CSEF 2014 Physics & Astronomy · Entry J1817

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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