SMK St. Michael, Ipoh, Perak.

Form 4 PKS 1 (Type A)

Title: - Length of a swing and the period of oscillation of the swing

Figure above shows a girl playing on two different swings. The swing on the left is longer than the swing
on the right. It is found out that the swing on the left moves faster than the swing on the right.
Problem Statement: - What is the relationship between length of a swing and the period of oscillation of
the swing?
Apparatus:- A 50 g pendulum bob, a 100 cm length of thread, meter rule, 2 small pieces of wood, retort
stand and a stopwatch
Procedure:-

1. A 50 g pendulum bob is tied to one end of a 100 cm length thread.

2. The other end of the thread is clamped to a retort stand by using two small pieces of wood.
3. The length, l of the pendulum is measured from the end below to small piece of wood to the centre
of the bob (i.e. l =60 cm).
4. The pendulum is made to oscillate in a plane and having small amplitude of oscillation.
5. The time taken to complete 20 full oscillations is recorded with a stopwatch.
6. The time for 20 complete oscillations is recorded once more.
7. The average time taken in the above two steps is calculated.
8. The experiment procedure is repeated by taking the length of pendulum to l = 50 cm, 40 cm, 30
cm and 20 cm.
9. All readings obtained are recorded in a table.
10. Then a graph of T2 against l is plotted