SCHOOL OF PHYSICS – LEVEL 200 PHYSICS LABORATORY REPORT SLIP
FOR ZCT 293/2 AND ZCT 294/2
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PARTICULARS
Name: LOK JUN WEI
Matric no.:147278
Group: W4
Expt. Code: 2GP1
Expt. Title: VARIABLE-g PENDULUM EXPERIMENTS
Lecturer in charge: ASSOC. PROF. DR. AZHAR ABDUL RAHMAN
Report due date: 9/7/2021
Experiment (√) Grade (√)
1 2 3 √ A A- B+ B
4 5 6 B- C+ C C-
D+ D D- F
Date Received (Stamp) Comments
Lab 200 Management Submission Form (ver.2) 17 April 2021
VARIABLE-g PENDULUM EXPERIMENTS
ABSTRACT
In this experiment, we determine the gravitational acceleration value of the Earth, g is
equal to (10.0972809400 ± 0.0000000001)ms −2 with about 2.9 % percentage
discrepancy compared to the theoretical value of 9.81ms^-2 We also determine the
gravitational acceleration value of Mars 𝑔𝑚 is equal to (2.65 ± 0.05)ms −2 with a
percentage discrepancy of about 28.9 % compared to the theoretical value of
3.7278ms^-2.
THEORY
A simple pendulum consists of a mass m hanging from a string of length L and fixed
at a pivot point P. When displaced to an initial angle and released, the pendulum will
swing back and forth with periodic motion. By the Newton second law, we can derive
that the period of a simple pendulum is
𝐿
𝑇 = 2𝜋√𝑔 (1)
Where g is the gravitational acceleration of the earth.
Figure 1: A simple pendulum
In this experiment, a physical pendulum called variable-g pendulum is used to
approximate to the simple pendulum. It consists of a mass connected by a massless
rigid rod to a pivot about which it can oscillate. It is shown in figure 2.
Figure 2: A variable-g pendulum
If the plane of oscillation is tilted by an angle 𝜙, from the vertical reference, as shown in figure 3, the
restoring force will change. Same we analyse by Newton’s second law, the period of rotated plane
oscillation will be
𝐿
𝑇 = 2𝜋√𝑔𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙 (2)
We can see that the value of gravity is reduced by a factor of 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙.
Figure 3: A simple pendulum with its plane of oscillation tilted from the vertical reference.
However, to achieve the more accurate period of the pendulum, we should take into account the mass
of the arm and consider the system as a physical (or compound) pendulum. As a result, period of Eq.
(3) will be modified when the finiteness of 𝑚1 , is taken into account. Therefore the more accurate
analysis of the physical pendulum gives the result for the period as
𝑚 𝑙2
𝐿(1+ 1 2 )
𝑇 = 2𝜋√ 3𝑚𝐿
𝑚 𝑙
1 )
(3)
𝑔𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙(1+2𝑚𝐿
where 𝑚1 is the mass of the arm, 𝑚 is the mass of the pendulum bob, L is the total length
of the arm of the physical pendulum.
This experiment consists of two parts, the first part is to measure the period of oscillation
of a variable-g pendulum as a function of the angle 𝜙 between the plane of oscillation and
the vertical for two different pendulum lengths, furthermore, we also plot graphs of the
period as a function of the angle 𝜙, and estimate the value of g. Both equations (2) and
(3) are used to investigate certain relationships between the quantities in the equations,
and how good is the approximation of the physical pendulum to the simple pendulum.
For the second part, we simulate the acceleration of gravity g, at the surface of planet
Mars in the laboratory by calculating the angle 𝜙 and setting this value for the variable-g
pendulum. The period of oscillation of the pendulum in the laboratory is measured and
a value of g is calculated and compared with the standard value of Mars's acceleration of
gravity.
In short, the aim of the experiment is to:
a) Estimate the value of the Earth’s gravitational acceleration, g through
investigating the relationship between a pendulum’s period of oscillation T and
its angle of reference 𝜙.
b) Estimate the value of Mars’s gravitational acceleration, gm using the pendulum.
Methodology
Figure 4: Schematic diagram of apparatus
Figure 5: the picture of the apparatus
This experiment consists of two parts. In the first part, the pendulum is first calibrated
according to the user manual. Then, the length of the arm of the bob, L is set to be 21cm.
The angle 𝜙 was set to be 0° and the pendulum bob is displaced with a small angle (<
10°) and released. The period T was measured and recorded. The measurement is
repeated in 5 times for every single angle of 𝜙 which are 0° to 80°, with steps of 10°. The
experiment above is repeated by changing L to 27cm. After that, graphs of the period of
oscillation T against the angle 𝜙 were plotted. The acceleration of gravity, g on Earth are
determined from the graphs plotted and using equation (2) and (3), by using Python’s
scipy.optimize.curve_fit function. The values of g obtained in this experiment are then
compared with the theoretical value.
For the second part, to simulate the environment of Mars, the value of angle 𝜙 is
calculated, the method is shown below:
𝑔𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡, 𝑔𝑚 = 0.38𝑔
𝑙𝑒𝑡 𝑔𝑚 = 𝑔𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙
⇒ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜙 = 0.38
𝜙 = 68°
Therefore, the pendulum is set to oscillated at the angle 𝜙 of 68°. The experiment is
repeated in 5 times, and the period of oscillation is measured and recorded. The average
period is calculated and the value of 𝑔𝑚 was estimated using equation (3) and then
compared with the theoretical value.
Data and Analysis
The first part
The data obtained are attached in the Appendix. The graphs of T against 𝜑 based on the
data are plotted using Python matplotlib.pyplot function and are shown in figures 5, 6, 7
and 8 below.
Graph 1: Graph of T against 𝜙 for L = 21 cm with curve fit based on equation (2)
Graph 2: Graph of T against 𝜙 for L = 21 cm with curve fit based on equation (3)
Graph 3: Graph of T against 𝜙 for L = 27 cm with curve fit based on equation (2)
Graph 4: Graph of T against 𝜙 for L = 27 cm with curve fit based on equation (3)
The curves fitted into the data points of the graph and the gravitational acceleration
values are estimated using Python scipy.optimize.curve_fit function respectively. The
estimated gravitational acceleration of the Earth, g from the 4 graphs
are summarised in table 1 below
table 1: table of gravitational acceleration, g values of the Earth estimated according to
the data points using Python
For the four graphs above we can observe that the T increase as the angle 𝜙 increase,
the graphs grow exponentially. All four graphs have a common outlier point at ϕ = 80°.
By taking the average value of g, the experimental value of g is (10.0972809400 ±
0.0000000001)ms −2 with about 2.9 % percentage discrepancy to the theoretical value.
The second part
The data collected are attached in the appendix. The gravitational acceleration of Mars,
gm is shown in Table 2 below.
Table 2: Table of Gravitational acceleration values of Mars estimated according to
equation (3)
Gravitational acceleration of Percentage of discrepancy(%)
Mars, 𝑔𝑚 (𝑚𝑠 )−2
2.6 ± 0.1 27.91
The gravitational acceleration value of Mars is (2.6 ± 0.1)𝑚𝑠 −2 with percentage of
discrepancy about 27.91% compared to the theoretical value.
Discussion
From the propagation of error formula as shown below,
2 2
𝜕𝑓 𝜕𝑓
√
𝛿𝑓 = ( 𝛿𝑓) + ( 𝛿𝑓) + ⋯
𝜕𝑥 𝜕𝑦
2 2 𝑛𝑇
We can find that 𝛿𝑔 = 𝑇 𝑔𝛿𝑇, 𝛿𝑔𝑚 = 𝑇 𝑔𝑚 𝛿𝑇 and 𝛿𝑇 = 360 𝑡𝑎𝑛ϕ
For the first part of the experiment, the percentage of discrepancy of the value of g we
estimated is relatively low, so the experiment value is considered accurate and acceptable.
Its low fractional discrepancy also told us that the values obtained are considered precise.
Although the theory shows the equation (3) is a more accurate approach, as we compare
the values of g obtain using equations (2) and (3), we observe that for L = 21 cm, the g
value for equation (2) seems to give a more accurate reading than the value given by
equation (3). While for L = 27 cm, we observe that the g value for equation (3) seems to
give a more accurate reading than the value given by equation (2). Hence, we cannot
experimentally show which equations are more accurate and that might cause by some
errors occurs throughout the experiment.
Furthermore, we observe there is an outlier point for the data recorded for the angle at
80 degrees. This is because the pendulum oscillates more slowly as time passes, and it
stop before we can get the fourth reading. These outlier point affect our shape of graph
and deviate our calculated value of g. Hence, to improve the experiment, it is suggested
to collect more data points for the graph, for example we can collect the data with the
step value of the angle 5°. With more data points to analyse, the curve fit, and g value
might be done more accurately. Moreover, we also can lubricate the pivot of the
pendulum to reduce the friction which causes the pendulum to stop and if possible, we
also can carry out the experiment in a vacuum chamber so that we can minimize the effect
of the air friction.
For the second part, we see that the value of 𝑔𝑚 calculated has percentage of discrepancy
of 27.91% and fractional discrepancy of 1.89%, so we can say that the experimental value
is considered accurate and precise. To improve the experiment, the method mentioned
above can also used in the part of experiment
Conclusion
In this experiment, we determine the gravitational acceleration value of the Earth, g is
equal to (10.0972809400 ± 0.0000000001)ms −2 with about 2.9 % percentage
discrepancy compared to the theoretical value of 9.81ms^-2 We also determine the
gravitational acceleration value of Mars 𝑔𝑚 is equal to (2.65 ± 0.05)ms −2 with a
percentage discrepancy of about 28.9 % compared to the theoretical value of
3.7278ms^-2.
Reference
1. Lab manual 2GP1
Appendix
