3

EXPERIMENT 2.ACCELERATION OF GRAVITY

Goals :Find the acceleration of gravity by basic harmonic motion.
Theory:
Mass on the Earth will be affected by the gravitational force whatever its phase is solid ,liquid
or gas. Acceleration of gravity is given by g and in SI unit sistem acceleration is given by
meters per second per second (m/s2) or Newton per kilogram (N/kg) .It is value will
change due to the gravitational force in different locations in Earth (between 9.78 ve
9.82 m/s2) and the standart value is 9.80665 m/s2 .
Newtons Second Law will explain the relation between the gravitational force and the
acceleration of gravitation :

F [ N ] = m [ kg ].g m / s 2

(in SI unit system)

the weight of an object is the force on the object due to gravity, in SI unit it is given in
Newton. Weight is related with the mass:
Wt=m.g

g: accerelation of gravity

Lets assume that an object is felling down from a height to the ground. This object will
accelerate and the force which is applied to the object will be;
F=m.a

a: acceleration of object

The weight and the force which is applied to the object will be equal so ;
F=m.a=m.g
At the same height from the ground all objects will have same acceleration .If there is no air
resistance (Lets assume working in vacuum) all the object which are left from the same height
will reach to the ground at the same time. Objects speed will increase as 9.8m/s in every
second.
V=g.t v: speed of the object (m/s)
t: time(s)
There are some basic experimental setups to measure the acceleration of gravity in freshman
physics laboratories and the basic pendulum is one of these techniques which is very practical
and fast.
Basic pendulum is constructed by hanging an object to a point height from ground by an
inelastic rope. Pendulum ropes lenght is L and the stable position of the pendulum is the
point where it stands stil.
Object is just moves a little bit up from the stable position and is released from this position.
Object will oscillate between these two positions until its potential energy is zero. Then it will
stop its motion at the point where it is stable.

If the energy of this harmonic motion is worked in detail, at the first point there object is
released it will have only potential energy (P.E.=mgh) then this energy will completely
transfer to the kinetic energy at the point A (K.E.=mv2/2).Then object will rise to the point B
and here its potential energy will be maximum again. Object will continue to its harmonic
motion until its potential energy is zero.

Figure 1-Basic Pendulum

The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event (T),in S unit system its unit is
second(s). The number of the oscillations in one second is called as frequency(f).Its unit is
1
Hertz (Hz) and the relation between frequency and period : T =
f
Some important points about Basic Pendulum:
1.)As the pendulum lenght is fixed, period of the pendulum is independent of its mass, shape
or the content of the material.
2.)Period of the pendulum is independent of the amplitute of the oscillation.
3.) Period of the pendulum is directly proportional to the square root of the rope lenght.
4.) Period of the pendulum is inversely proportional to the square root of the acceleration of
gravity.
Before calculate the basic pendulum period first of all label the forces on the system and draw
the forces diagram of the object. The movement trajectory is the tangential direction of the
circle and radial direction is the direction where the object is hanged to the suspension point.

Check the figure. The gravitational force which is applied to the object mg is to the down.
The perpendicular and the vertical components of the force are drawn and the force
component of the radial direction is mg cos q while the tangential component is
mg sin q .Forces radial component will satisfy the required centripetal acceleration so as
to keep the object motion on the circle. As the tangential component forces object to
come back to the equilibrium position.
F = -mg sin q

Here important point is that the force change with the sin q .If the value is so small then the
small angle approximation can be done and sin q can be expand in Taylor series around
=0.If is smaller than 150 tnis approximation can be done and the amount of the
displacement of the object on the circle x=L.. This small oscillations can be assummed to be
happen on a linear path.
Taylor Series:

f ' (a)
f 2 ( a)
f 3 ( a)
( x - a) +
( x - a) 2 +
( x - a)3 + ...
1!
2!
3!

f ( x) = f (a ) +

Taylor expantion of sin q ;

sin q q -

q3 q5 q7
3!

5!

7!

+ ...

write sin,then the force;

F = -mg sin q = -mg ( x / L) = -(mg / L) x

In small oscillations the force is directly proportional to the displacement and in the opposite
direction. This motion can be called as a basic harmonic motion and the force which creates
the motion is F = -kx where k is constant. The period of the motion for small oscillations :

T = 2p

T = 2p

m
m
L
= 2p
= 2p
mg
k
g
( )
L

L
g

EXPERIMENTAL SETUP:
Apparatus:
1.)Inelastic rope
2.)Metal sphere (basic pendulum)
3.)stopwatch
4.)ruler
5.)note book and milimetric graph paper
6.)calculator
SETUP AND MEASUREMENTS:
1.) Tie the rope to a fixed and heigh point from the ground and
to the other end fix the metal sphere.
2.) Measure the lenght of the rope between two end points
3.) Measure your sphere diameter with vernier .
4.) R(ap)=..............................................................(cm)
r(yarap)=.......................................................(cm)
L=r+L=............................................................(cm)
5.)Move up the metal sphere and release it without first
acceleration , at this moment start the stopwatch and wait until
the sphere finish its first 5 harmonic oscillations. Then divide
this total time to 5 and find the time pass for one oscillation.
Repeat your measurement 3 times and fill the table for all
different L values.
6.)Repeat your measurement for least 7 different L values..
n Ip boyu L(m) T 1(s)
T 2(s)
T 3(s)
T ort.(s)
T2(s2)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
g ort (m/s2)=

g (m/s2)

7.)Calculate the acceleration of gravity and write to the table.

8.)Plot the graph of Rope lenght (L) period (T)
9.)Plot graph of Rope lenght (L) period (T2) .
10.)Calculate the slope of the graphs and find the accelaration of gravity by using the graphs.
11.) Search the acceleration of gravity in our Latitude(in stanbul) from the web and figure
out the (%) error between this value and the average value of your measurements.
12.)Use period formulation and derive the relative error formula.
13.)Calculate the Standart derivation of the acceleration of gravity.
14.)Interpret details of the work and make your comment for your measurements and
results.

Not:Teslim edilen dev ve raporlarda sonularn ve grafiklerini analiz ederek

yorumlamayan rencilerin raporlar kabul edilmeyecektir. Yorum ve sonu
deerlendirmesi iin Fizik Lab I-fy Hata Analizi Ksmn inceleyin.

REPORT
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