Dynamics coursework

Abstract
After conducting an experiment on a vibrating system in order to calculate the
frequencies, it was calculated that there was an 8.70% difference between the
theoretical and analytical data for a system with a large pulley, and a difference of
1.81% for a system with a smaller pulley. Two main reasons for these differences
have been considered to be a result of human errors such as reaction time as well
as the masses of the pulleys were not incorporated in the equations used to
calculate their respective frequencies. Some countermeasures were discussed on
how to minimize discrepancies in the data, moreover to take some precautions to
obtain better readings.
Contents
Abstract

1.

Introduction

2.

Background

2.

Apparatus

4.

Experimental Procedure

4.

Calculations & Results

5.

Discussion

5.

Conclusion

6.

References

6.

Appendix

7.

Introduction
In this report, a lab experiment was carried out; the aim of the task was to
assemble a vibrating system undergoing simple harmonic motion (SHM) in order
to find the natural frequency. SHM is the phenomenon of when a spring mass
system oscillates and undergoes a sinusoidal motion when its under the restoring
force directed towards the centre of the spring obeying Hookes law. SHM
undergoes a motion following the equation x = (+ ), where is the
amplitude, is the angular velocity; is the time period of the system and
the phase angle. Since the oscillation starts at the center or the extremes when
t=0 there is no need for the phase angle, therefore the equation of motion
simplifies to x = (). A simple mass spring system was used to achieve a
theoretical spring constant, moreover a different setup, with two different sized
pulleys, was used and its natural frequency of vibration was calculated, as well as
the experimental and theoretical data were compared to observe the difference.
We will now look at the derivations required in order for us to calculate the natural
frequency of the simple mass system and the slightly more complicated springpulley-mass system.
The first two equations needed are:

Hook e ' s law , F=kx

(1)

New n ' s 2 nd law , F=ma

(2)

Where F is the force applied, m is the mass, a is the acceleration, x is the

displacement and k is the spring constant, joining equations (1) and (2) and
rearranging for acceleration gives:

a=

kx
=x
m

(3)

As the assumption is that the system is under simple harmonic motion, we can
therefore use the following equation:
x= Asin(t )
(4)
Where is the displacement, is the amplitude, is angular velocity, and is the
time taken for the oscillation. Differentiating equation (4) twice gives us the
acceleration, which is,

x =A 2 sin ( t)
(5)
Substituting equation (4) and (5) into equation (3) give us the angular velocity, ,
in terms of the spring constant and the mass:

=
(6)
We know the following equation:

k
m
=2 f

Substitution (7) into (6) and rearranging for frequency,

(7)

gives:

f=
(8)

1
2

k
m

This is the base of our equation, however it needs to be modified further as it

doesnt consider the mass of the spring. The effective mass of the spring is
deduced from the kinetic energy of the spring,

1
E= m u2 dm
2

(9)

Where is the mass of the spring, is the velocity and is the kinetic energy. By
taking into consideration the proportionality of the length (l), mass of the spring
s , and velocity (), we can say:

dm=m

dy
l

and

(10)

u=

vy
l

(11)

Substituting equations (10) and (11) into equation (9) and solving the integral
gives us:

E=

1m 2
v
2 3

(12)

Comparing this to the general KE equation, we can see that the effective mass of
the spring is

1
3

of its original mass. Incorporating the mass of the spring in

equation (8) gives us,

f=

1
2

k
m
m+ s
3

(13)

Rearranging to make the subject, in order to find the theoretical spring constant,
2

k =( 2 f ) (m+

leaves us with the following equation,

(14)

ms
)
3

In order to find the spring constant of the spring-pulley-mass system, another

equation is required similar to equation (13). The derivation will be demonstrated
below.
nd
We will once again use Hookes Law and Newtons 2
Law equations, taking into
account the tension, T, in the string to which the mass is attached as shown in
figures 3 and 4.Thus solving the two equations we get,

2T =k ( ql ) T =

k (ql)
2

(15)

Where is the displacement with the mass attached and is the displacement
without the mass. The next part of the derivation is a vertical resolution that only
takes into account the mass and string from the system in the figure 3.
Substituting equation (15) in equation (1) and simplifying will give,

1
mg k ( ql )=m y
2

(16)

Looking at figure 3, we can see that the length of the spring, , can be showed as,

L=( Dq ) + ( y q ) + r
(17)
Where and are constants. In order for us to incorporate the equation above
into equation (16), we make the displacement, the subject and differentiate
twice to find .

y =2 q

(18)

2 mg+ kl=kq +4 q m

Thus we get,

(19)

Where , , and are constant values. Therefore we can also say that,

kq+ 4 q m=constant 1 , thus

q +

(20)

k
q=constant 2
4m

(21)
Solving the above differential equation gives us the following result,

f=

1
2

k
4m

(22)

We now simply incorporate the effective mass of the spring,

1
m into the
3 s

above equation and we get our required formula, shown below, to find the natural
frequency of the spring-pulley- mass system.

f=

1
2

k
4 m+

(23)

ms
3

Apparatus
Figure 1 shows the apparatus used to obtain the theoretical spring constant and
later used in equation (13) to find the theoretical natural frequency of the system.
Figure 3 shows the apparatus that was used to calculate the experimental natural
frequency of the system. This system consists of a pulley attached to the spring
with a mass suspended by a string attached at the base of the setup as shown in
the figure. Two different sized pulleys were used to obtain a more accurate
experimental result as well as for comparison reasons. The total time for
oscillations was measured using a stopwatch. The lengths of the spring at rest and
various positions were measured using a ruler, and the weight of the mass was
measured using a special type of beam balance.

Figure 1: Simple
spring-mass
system setup

Figure 2: Free body diagram

of simple spring-mass system

Figure 4: Free body diagram of

spring-pulley-mass system

Figure 3: a spring-pulley mass

system apparatus setup

Experimental procedure
Before commencing the experiment, the beam balance was used to measure the
masses of the object, the two pulleys as well as the spring; the original unstretched spring length was measured with a ruler.
The first thing was to setup the apparatus as shown in figure 1. After the mass
was attached to the spring, the length was measured and recorded, in order to
minimise the effects of uncertainties and chances of error by making it reliable,
the length was measure three times by two different people. The mass attached
to the spring was then pulled down to a certain distance and then released
The stop watch was then used to measure the time taken for 10 oscillations and
the results recorded. I repeated this five times to get consistent and reliable
results, a mean value for time period was then calculated. In order to calculate
the theoretical spring constant, a ruler was used to measure the extension of the
spring when mass was attached. Equation (14) was then used to calculate the
spring constant ().
Next, the apparatus was set up as shown in figure 3. The mass was suspended
with a string attached to base and the length of spring measured using the ruler.
As before, the length was also measure several times by two different people and
a mean value calculated. Two different sized pulleys were used; with the bigger
pulley we were able to measure the time period for 10 oscillations, whereas for
the smaller pulley it was only 3 oscillations.
Again, the previous step was completed five times and mean values calculated,
and the same was done for the small pulley. The respective natural frequencies
were then calculated by simply dividing the number of oscillations by their time
periods.
Results and calculations

As shown below, Hookes law can be used to calculate the theoretical spring
constant,

F=kx k =

k=

F
x

(0.354)(9.81)
0.219670.18867
1

k=112.02 N m

Next, equation (14) will be used to calculated the experimental spring

constant, as shown below
2

k =( 2 f ) (m+

ms
)
3

k=( 2 2.849 )2 (0.354+

0.0075
)
3

k =114.24 N m1

The percentage difference of the spring constants (k) can be calculated as shown
below,

difference=

114.24112.02
100=1.94
114.24

We can then use the theoretical spring constant to calculate the theoretical
natural frequency of the simple spring-mass system.

f=

1
2

112.02
0.0075
4 ( 0.354 ) +
3

f =1.414 Hz
In table 4 and 5, we can see that the experimental natural frequencies for the
large and small pulleys are 1.291 and 1.44 respectively, their percentage
difference when compared to the theoretical natural frequency are 54.4% and
1.81% for the large and small pulley respectively. The calculations are shown
below,

difference=
difference=

1.4141.291
100=8.70
1.414

1.441.414
100=1.81
1.44

Discussion
It can be seen that the theoretical natural frequency was calculated to be 1.414
Hz, this was then compared to the frequencies obtained from the experiment
involving both the large and small pulley, a percentage difference of 8.70% and
1.81% were found for the large and small pulley respectively.
The frequencies obtained during the experiment using the pulleys are 1.291Hz
and 1.44Hz respectively for the large and small pulley. The theoretical spring

constant was calculated to be 112.02

1
Nm .

N m1 and the experimental 114.24

There are possible sources of error in the experiment; one main source of error is
the fact that the mass of the pulley was not incorporated in the equation to
determine the frequency. The mass of the spring or the effective mass was taken
into consideration yet the pulley was not, even though the spring is 40 times
smaller compared to the mass of the large pulley, and about 34 times smaller
than the small pulley. I think this largely affected the natural frequencies we
obtained from our experiment.
Another significant source of error would be errors due to human measurement.
As with all the measurements that are taken by humans, there is a need to
consider the human reaction time and this is usually done by taking multiple
readings and calculating a mean value. During our experiment this method was
applied during the procedure however this would still result in some error, we
could only aim to reduce the error as much as possible. A more accurate method
to record results would be to use an instrument such as the light gates while
measuring the time periods of the oscillations for the pulleys and the mass; this is
because it doesnt require human reaction time. Using more accurate equipment
could increase the degree of accuracy; the ruler, weighing machine, and
stopwatch had uncertainties of 0.5 , 0.5 , and 0.005 respectively.
In the experiment, we assumed the SHM to have only one degree of freedom,
however during the experiment there was some horizontal movement along the
vertical oscillation, this was sure to cause some energy to be lost thereby
affecting the end results obtained. This horizontal motion could be avoided if the
spring was attached to the stand more firmly. During the experiment, as all the
components were in contact with one another, friction was certain to come into
play and some energy was lost because of this. In order to achieve credible
results, we assumed that the system was in simple harmonic motion meaning that
it would keep on oscillating unless an external force was acting. Although this
assumption meant that friction wouldnt act, the results obtained were close to
the theoretical value. The damping effects in the system also need to be
considered, a more accurate result couldve been obtained if a smoother pulley
was used, moreover we couldve incorporated a damping coefficient in the
equation to find the natural frequency. To compensate for friction, one way would
be to include kinetic friction in the equation and another would be to use a string
with less friction for the best results.
Conclusion
For this experiment, a vibrating system involving a spring, mass and pulley was
assembled and its natural frequency of vibration whilst under SHM was calculated.
The experiment was carried out as carefully as possible and the data obtained
was used to calculate both the theoretical and analytical values for the spring
constant and natural frequency of the vibrating system. The results proved that
theoretical data could come very close to analytical data as long as factors like
mass of external objects, energy losses due to friction, and damping effects arent
taken into consideration. A more accurate range of values couldve been obtained
by following the suggestions made in the discussion section of this report. it was
assumed that there was no horizontal motion, however this was not the case as it
is difficult to maintain motion in one degree of freedom.
References
Hibbeler, R. C., 2010. EngineeringMechanics:Dynamics.12th edition.
Callister, W.D., 2013. Materials Science and Engineering. 8th edition. John Wiley &
Sons.

Effective Mass of an Oscillating Spring" The Physics Teacher, 45, 100 (2007)

Appendix

Mass/
Length of spring/
0.0075

Spring

Table 1: masses of apparatus

Reading 1
Small pulley

0.015

Reading 2

0.189
Large pulley

0.287

0.188

Average
Object

0.354

Reading 3

0.189

0.188666667

Length of spring with mass attached/

Reading 1

Reading 2

Reading 3

0.219

0.22

0.22

0.219666667

Average

Length of spring with mass attached over small

pulley/
Reading 1

Reading 2

Reading 3

0.25

0.251

0.251

0.250666667

Average

Length of spring with mass attached over large

pulley/
Reading 1

Reading 2

Reading 3

0.275

0.276

0.275

0.275333333

Average

Table 2: lengths of spring in

equilibrium as well as under
various conditions

Simple spring-mass system

Time
period for
10
oscillation
s/

3.43

3.57

Average
time
period/
Frequency
/

3.69

3.44

3.42

3.51
2.849002849
Table 3: data for simple spring mass system

Simple spring-pulley-mass system for large pulley

Time
period for
10
oscillation
s/

7.67

7.78

7.84

Average
time
period/

7.748

Frequency
/

1.290655653

7.79

7.66

Table 4: data for large pulley system

Simple spring-pulley-mass system for small pulley

Time
period for
3
oscillation
s/

2.06

2.15

1.98

Average
time
period/

2.088

Frequency
/

1.436781609

2.21

Table 5: data for small pulley system

2.04