Pendulum theory (and practice), and the physical pendulum

Last time, you made measurements of the period of a simple pendulum for several different choices of its length. Today, we'll see what physics has to say about the relationship between a pendulum's length and its period, and you'll use your data to determine the local value of g.

• Theory of a simple pendulum (short PDF)
• Theory of a simple pendulum (color HTML)
• Use measurements of pendulum to find g

We used a linear coordinate system, and forces, to figure out how a simple pendulum oscillates. It's also possible to use an angular coordinate system, and torques; let's do that to figure out how a non-simple pendulum will move.

• Theory of a physical pendulum (short version PDF)
• Theory of a physical pendulum (with color HTML)
• Predict the period of a physical pendulum

Copyright © Michael Richmond. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.