Engineering Physics II _ EPHY - 2143

Laboratory Practical Sheet 02

Session 02– Simple Harmonic Motion
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Time allocation: 3 hours

Objectives
• To study the simple harmonic motion.

Apparatus
• Rotational motion apparatus
• Laboratory DC power supply
• Stop watch
• Projector and screen

Procedure
Angular velocity of disk
1. Setup the rotating table in front of the camera and the light source to have a
shadow of the peg on the screen.

Figure 01. Top view of the apparatus

2. Derive the expression for the horizontal coordinate y of the shadow in terms
of radius r and angular velocity of table ω.
3. Also derive expressions of velocity and acceleration of the y coordinate of the
shadow.
4. Measure the distance between the two farthest points of shadow and make
sure that it is approximately equal to the diameter of the circle of motion of
peg of the rotating table.
5. Set power supply voltage to low enough to get a angular velocity
approximately to 30 RPM ( Max 5 V).
6. Start the motor by turning ON the power supply output and wait until the
motor has reached maximum speed and the motion has stabilized.

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 Engineering Physics II _ EPHY - 2143

7. Observe the rotational speed of the peg and take three measurements of times
to complete 10 rounds and record data below.
Table 1
Time (s)
Time taken
to complete 10 1st attempt 2nd attempt 3rd attempt Average
cycles

8. Compute the average of the angular velocity ω. Calculate the period of the
oscillation T.
9. Calculate equation for the simple harmonic motion of the shadow of the peg.
10. Consider a simple pendulum made of a small mass attached to a string. Use
the relationship 𝑇 = 2𝜋√𝑙/𝑔 to calculate the required length of the string to
have the same period of the shadow motion.
11. Adjust the string length of the pendulum and perform a test to verify the
calculated length. If the period doesn’t match, identify what further changes
are required.
Graphs and Calculations

• Following graphs should be included and should be plotted using Excel.

o Amplitude vs. Time
o Velocity vs. Time
o Acceleration vs. Time
• Measure the percentage difference of your experimental results with the
theoretical results, using the following equation.
(Experimental Result − Theoretical Result)
o % Difference = x 100%
Theoretical Result

Discussion
1. What assumptions were made?
2. Explain why the distance between the two farthest points of shadow must be
approximately equal to the diameter of the circle of motion of peg for
accuracy of this experiment (parallel light beam)?
3. What factors were considered when deriving the length of the simple
pendulum having the same period as the shadow?
4. Explain why the period of the pendulum did not match the period of the
shadow? What changes were required to match them? Explain what does
these changes indicate?
5. Explain why the calculated length is required to be further adjusted to match
the period of the shadow.

Conclusion

• Include your final conclusions.

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