PH102 LAB REPORT

Date: 25/02/2020

Week: 4

Name: Peggy Cocker

Student ID: S11186035

Experiment 2

Title: The Compound Pendulum

AIM

To investigate the behavior of a compound pendulum and in particular to

use the data of its behavior to find the values of “g” and “k” (the radius of
gyration).

APPARATUS

 A metal bar of a length 1 meter, with holes drilled at equal intervals.

 A knife edge support of the bar, which was used as the axes of
rotation.
 1 stopwatch,
 a meter ruler
 electronic weight balance
 Vernier Caliper.

METHOD

As per lab manual, page 5

INTRODUCTION

An ideal “simple pendulum” is a point is a point mass at the end of a

weightless string. This ideal pendulum can be approached closely by
suspending a heavy sphere from a light string or cord.

The various differences between the theoretical and experimental results

do not surpass about 1% and are thought to be caused by damping
mechanisms not considered in the simple theory.
RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Table 1

Mass 0.8265  1 x 10-5 kg

Length 1.017  0.01m
Width 0.0251  0.01m
Moment of Inertia 0.071  0.071 kgm/s

Calculation for moment of inertia

Calculation for “k” (theoretical) with uncertainties.

Table 2
 TIME FOR 3O PERIOD
OSCILLATION
S
h(m) Time 1(s) Time 2(s) Time 3(s) T (s)
0.01m 0.01s 0.03s 0.04s 9.68x10-3m2
0.475 48.3 48.2 48.58 1.61
0.420 47.3 47.5 47.77 1.58
0.372 46.6 46.95 46.49 1.55
0.325 45.7 45.6 45.91 1.53
0.275 45.6 45.5 45.88 1.52
0.225 46.2 46.4 46.72 1.54
0.154 49.3 48.97 48.91 1.64
0.126 54.1 54.4 54.09 1.81

Table 3

h (m) T (s) T2 (s2) T2h (s2m) h2 (m2)

 0.01m 9.68x10-3s 0.01s2 0.04s2m 9.8x10-3m2
0.475 1.61 2.6 1.2 0.23
0.42 1.58 2.5 1.05 0.18
0.372 1.55 2.4 0.89 0.14
0.325 1.53 2.34 0.76 0.11
0.275 1.52 2.31 0.64 0.08
0.225 1.54 2.37 0.53 0.05
0.154 1.64 2.68 0.41 0.02
0.126 1.81 3.28 0.41 0.02

Draw graphs and calculate the experiment values for g and k.

Comment on the obtained values.

 1.4

1.2 f(x) = 3.85 x + 0.34

R² = 1
1

0.8

Linear ()
0.6 Linear ()

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25

T vs H graph
2
1.8 f(x) = 0.12 x + 0.82
1.6
1.4
1.2 Y-Values
Linear (Y-Values)
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Experimental calculations for g and k.

Questions

a) One may notice the equation (2) is a quadratic equation in the variable
h and can be rewritten as;
¿2÷g)h2 – T2h+ (42k2 ÷g) = 0

That implies that there may be two possible values of h(h 1h2) for any given
values of . Solve for h1 and h2 and show that
k 2 = h1 h2

Where h1 and h2 are the two values for a given period T.

b) From the graph of T vs h (drawn in step (9)), find two values of h for a
arbitrarily chosen

value of T. Hence, compute the value of k using equation (5) and compare
this value of k

with the previously determined value from step (2) and step (6).

Conclusion:
It can be concluded that our experimental calculation of gravity and the
constant is equal to the theoretical calculations, giving the similar values.
The values obtained was not accurate due to prone errors in the
instrument used and uncertainties.

Reference:

 file:///F:/School/PPPPPPH102%20Laboratory%20Manual%20(1).pdf
