Pendulum

The equation we found for the period of a pendulum was T= 2π(√L/g). Given that pi and g are constants with actual numeric values, this means that the only actual variables in the equation are T (period) and L(length) meaning that there has to be a relationship between the two variables. To verify the equation that we found, we have to identify the independent and dependent variables. Independent would be the period and length would the dependent as it’s the only variable we can actually change ourselves. Given that we want a linear relationship, we have to make sure that the formula follows the y = mx+ b format where the dependent variable is multiplied by some constant to get y. To get this we have to change the equation so that L is isolated on the right side of the equation. Therefore T2 = (4π2/g)L. This means that when we graph the data, we have to square the period that we find to get a linear graph. To actually get the data, we decided to use a piece of string attached to a mass (mass is not important to this lab, so we choose a random value) and then swung it from a constant angle (which again, also didn’t really matter as angle was not included in the equation) and calculated the period of the swing. Then we recorded what we found.