Describe an experiment, using a pendulum, which can be conducted to investigate g, acceleration due to gravity.
Set up a clamp stand with pendulum bob hanging from a thread attached to the top of the clamp stand. Set up a protractor where the thread is attached to the stand. Set up a fiduciary marker as a point of reference. Using a metre ruler, start the length of the thread off at 1.0 m. Measure the length of thread from the centre of the pendulum bob to where it is held in place. Using the protractor at the top of the clamp stand, displace the pendulum by 10 degrees. Release the pendulum and using a stopwatch and the fiduciary marker, time 20 oscillations. Divide this time by 20 to give you the time period. Repeat this three times and calculate an average. Keeping the angle of release and using the same bob, reduce the length of thread by 0.1m and repeat the experiment. Continue up to a length of 0.1m. Tabulate the data, plot a graph of T2 against L and plot a line of best fit, checking if it goes through the origin ( which it should ). Calculate the gradient and divide 4Pi2 by the gradient. This value should be g, 9.81 m/s2. Calculate percentage difference and evaluate the experiment.
