At the turn of the century 400 years ago, Galileo was completing his examination of the study of motion and had discovered a profound relationship of a pendulum and its period (the time to complete a swing).  Before Galileo, no one had every noticed the regularity of this common phenomenon.  His discovers allowed time keeping to be done to accuracy 1000 times greater than in the past.

 

The myth is that he discovered this relationship while watching an urn filled with burning incense swing at the end of a chain during a church service.  It is suggested that he measured the swing with the beating of his heart, but I like to think that it was the melody within his head, that lead him to discover that the period of a pendulum is constant.

 

 

 

 

 

The period of a pendulum is defined as the time (in seconds) required for one complete vibration. To calculate its value in the data table below, you will take the average of your three times for 10 vibrations and divide by the number of vibrations in each trial, 10.

The frequency of a pendulum is defined as the number of vibrations occuring each second. It is measured in hertz, hz. One hertz means one vibration per second. To calculate its value in the data table below, you will divide the number of vibrations in each trial, 10, by the average of your three times. Frequency is the multiplicative inverse, or reciprocal, of period.

 

 

Once your table is complete, open the EXCEL workbook 1-pendulum on the file system and fill out the required information on each worksheet. Remember to rename the file as Pendulum_LastnameLastname.xls before placing any of your group's information in the file.