Instructions for measuring the period of oscillation of a pendulum:
- Press the start button of the stopwatch just at the moment
when the pendulum is going through its deepest point.
- Count "one", when it goes again through its deepest point
(coming from the same side!).
- Repeat counting until "ten". At that moment stop the stopwatch.
Dividing the time in the display by ten yields the period of
oscillation.
- Measure the period several times to get a feeling for
the error of measurment. Note, that
the time increment of the stopwatch is roughly 0.1 sec (i.e.
the inverse frame rate of animation). Thus, the minimum error
of the period achieved by this method is 0.005 sec.
© 1998 Franz-Josef Elmer,
Franz-Josef.Elmer@unibas.ch
last modified Friday, July 24, 1998.
