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Damping Effects on a Pendulum Experiment

This document describes an experiment to show students the damping effects of air drag on a pendulum. The objective is to demonstrate how air drag and heat loss cause the amplitude of a pendulum's swings to decrease exponentially over time. Students are instructed to set up a simple pendulum and protractor, release the pendulum from a 40 degree angle, and measure its maximum angle every 15 seconds as it swings until reaching 5 degrees or less. They will then graph their amplitude data over time and answer questions about how air drag causes damping and affects the pendulum's motion.

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537 views2 pages

Damping Effects on a Pendulum Experiment

This document describes an experiment to show students the damping effects of air drag on a pendulum. The objective is to demonstrate how air drag and heat loss cause the amplitude of a pendulum's swings to decrease exponentially over time. Students are instructed to set up a simple pendulum and protractor, release the pendulum from a 40 degree angle, and measure its maximum angle every 15 seconds as it swings until reaching 5 degrees or less. They will then graph their amplitude data over time and answer questions about how air drag causes damping and affects the pendulum's motion.

Uploaded by

necii
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Experiment: The Damping Effect of Air Drag on a Pendulum

Bruce Dillon
Lane Matheson
Carol Brunjes

Objective: To show students the damping effects that occurs due to air drag and
heat loss.

Materials:
Simple Pendulum
Stop watch
Ring Stand
Graph paper
Cardboard protractor large enough to measure angles at the bottom of the
pendulum
Tape

Procedures:
1. Set up pendulum and protractor as shown.

Pendulum

Table Top

Protractor

2. Measure the length of the top of the string to the center of the mass.
Record in data table.
3. Pull the mass back to an angle of approximately 40 degrees. Record
angle in data table.
4. Release the mass and measure the maximum angle every 15 seconds.
Continue until angle is 5 degrees or less. Record angles in data table.
Discussion:
A simple pendulum produces simple harmonic motion when the
displacement from the equilibrium position is small. The small angle is used
to reduce the amount of drag due to the air. However, if the angle is large
then drag needs to be considered. In this case the oscillations of the mass of
the pendulum are subject to a drag force proportional to the velocity. The
system is the said to be damped. In damped oscillations the amplitude
decreases exponentially with time.

Questions for Students:


1. Graph your data with amplitude on the y-axis and time on the x-axis.
2. Does your data agree with theory? Explain your response.
3. At what value of t would you expect your pendulum to stop
completely?
4. What are some errors that might skew your data?
5. As amplitude decreases, what happens to the periods?

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