Saturday, March 26, 2011

Does celestial object size affect pendulum rate?

Question: Does the size of the celestial object affect the rate of a pendulum's swing?

Methods:
The Pendulum Lab was used for this experiment. The angle (45°) , the length (1.5 M), and the mass (2 Kg) were kept constant. The location of the pendulum (Jupiter, Earth and the moon) were the independent variables. The pendulum swing rate was the dependent variable.

Hypothesis:
I hypothesize that the smaller the celestial object (Jupiter > Earth > Moon>) the slower the rate of the pendulum swing.

Observed Data:

Figure 1: 2 cycles of the pendulum swing from 45 degrees with a 2 Kg mass on Jupiter.
Figure 2: 2 cycles of the pendulum swing from 45 degrees with a 2 Kg mass on earth.
Figure 3: 2 cycles of the pendulum swing from 45 degrees with a 2 Kg mass on the moon.

Answer: Yes! I was correct. The smaller the celestial object the slower the pendulum swings, because the smaller the object the less gravitational pull.

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