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How to Measure a Pendulum Swing

The pendulum demonstrates Newton's Second Law of Motion, that acceleration and force are vectors, and you can calculate the force you apply to an object based on the object's weight and acceleration. The pendulum also demonstrates gravity. You can take various measurements when conducting a pendulum swing experiment to use in mathematical equations, or to demonstrate how changing variables, such as the pendulum's length or angle, can change the period of a swing.

Things You'll Need

Pendulum
Yardstick
Protractor
Stopwatch

Instructions

- 1
  Measure the length of the pendulum string. Start your measurement at the point where your string attaches to its support. It's best to suspend the pendulum from a horizontal support so the string can hang and swing freely.
- 2
  Measure the angle of the pendulum before you release it. Place the yardstick vertically near the pendulum to show a neutral, zero-degree angle. Next, pull the pendulum out, measuring the angle using a protractor. It's up to you to select the angle for your particular experiment.
- 3
  Measure the period of your pendulum swing. The period refers to the time the pendulum takes to make one full swing, or to return back to its original point. Release the pendulum from your chosen height and use the stopwatch to time how long it takes for it to swing 10 times. Divide this number by 10 to find the period of the pendulum swing. (In mathematical equations, a T usually designates the period.)

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