2. What causes the pendulum to keep on moving?
Whenever a pendulum swings, potential energy is swapped with kinetic energy.
Each swing sees friction and drag steal a bit more energy from the pendulum and
it gradually comes to a halt.
3. Compare the no. of swings in different lengths of your pendulum. Explain.
Comparing the number of swings in different lengths of my pendulum its shows that the speed
of a pendulum’s swing is affected by the length of the string. Longer string has slower swing,
fewer periods in 15 seconds and the shorter string faster swing, more periods.
4. How does the length of the string affect the number of swings of a pendulum?
The longer the string, the fewer swings the pendulum will complete in 15s, and shorter the
string, the more swings the pendulum will complete. It will take more time and energy to move
the string that is longer rather than a shorter one.
5. How would you adjust the pendulum of a grandfather clock if it were running too slow?
This is adjusted by turning the nut at the bottom of the pendulum. Moving it up pushes the
“bob” (the round disk) up so the clock will run faster. If you turn the nut as to lower the “bob”, the clock
will run slower. The pendulum disk is moved up or down by turning the adjustment nut. The longer you
make the pendulum, the slower the grandfather clock. The shorter you make the pendulum,
the faster the grandfather clock.
6. What force causes the pendulum to speed up on the way down and slow down on the way up?
Gravity is one of the forces that reverberates on this, and it is responsible for giving weight value
to the mass on the string. This force would be perpetually oscillating if it did not suffer from the
effects of energy loss caused by swinging. As a result, gravitational forces accelerate and
decelerate the pendulum.
7. What is the dependent variable in a pendulum experiment?
In this experiment, the period of the pendulum is the dependent variable. Period is the time for
one cycle.
8. What is the independent variable in a pendulum experiment?
There are three independent variables: the pendulum mass, the amplitude of the swing,
and the length of the pendulum string.
9. What happens to the time period of a simple pendulum if its length is doubled?
If the length is doubled, the period will increase. Doubling the mass of the bob will half the
period.
10. What is your hypothesis in this pendulum experiment?
The hypothesis in this case would be, “changing the amount of weight at the end of the
pendulum will change the period of the pendulum.” In an experiment, the period would be
measured with a particular weight, the weight would be changed without changing any other
variables, and the new weight would then be measured again.
11. State your conclusion in this simple pendulum experiment.
The pendulum traverses a longer distance in a shorter time, than in a shorter distance, and its
period is shorter. There are a number of reasons why Galileo thought that the period remains
constant. One factor which Galileo failed to consider is friction.