Analysing The Physics

What is the period of a pendulum? How can it be defined? Period can be defined as the amount of time it takes for a pendulum to complete one swing (back and forth).

The equation displayed above can be used to mathematically determine the period of a pendulum. The factors applied in the equation are what affect the period of a pendulum. Therefore, using further analysis we can determine what will impact the period of a pendulum. Mass and starting height are not some of the included variables meaning they could be eliminated as potential factors that influence the period of a pendulum. The length of the string, however, is an included variable in the equation and is represented by the letter L. Applying the mathematical concept of altering one variable and thereby altering the product, one can conclude altering the length of string suspending a weight will alter the period of a pendulum. If the length of string is increased so too is the duration of time required to complete one swing and vise versa, if the length of string is decreased so too is the duration of time required to complete one swing.

The pendulum wave machine that I constructed creates a visual of this concept by using different lengths of string to hold weights of equal mass. When the weights are all pulled back evenly and let go at the same time, it can be observed that they each cover different distances and create quite the alluring pendulous pattern.