We can experiment to test the relationship between the length of a pendulum and its period. First, we would need to set up a pendulum, with a string hanging the pendulum bob with a period to hold the hanging string to a fixed point. We will raise the pendulum bob from whichever direction and release the pendulum bob to create a swinging motion. For every oscillation (every swing) we would be using a stopwatch to note the time in a table to experiment the time a full swing took in different length of the string. Through the experiment, we would be able to retrieve the kind of data that we can compare the effect of a change in a swinging pendulum to the length of the string.
Gravity plays a huge role in this experiment. The weight of the pendulum bob is fixed from a pivot point which the pendulum bob can swing freely. Galileo has found that the mass of the pendulum bob or the size of the arc does not matter. The longer the string that holds the pendulum bob is, the greater amount of time it to complete one oscillation since it has to travel a larger distance for the same angle of swing. (Francis, 2011) As the pendulum bob is placed at a higher position and released, the pendulum bob’s weight would allow the pendulum bob to be pulled downwards and aligned by the fixed pivot point, towards the equilibrium. Once the pendulum bob has reached the equilibrium, the momentum that was building up to pull down the pendulum bob has been built up and released, allowing the energy to place the pendulum ball to move to a higher location on the opposite side of the pivot point. The pendulum bob loses momentum and gets pulled to the equilibrium again. The motion continues and eventually will be put to a stop because of air resistance.
Francis, M. (2011)
Physics Quanta: The Pendulum’s Swing. Retrieved fromhttps://galileospendulum.org/2011/05/24/physics-quanta-the-pendulums-swing/
