Exploriments: Pendulum - Effect of Length, Mass, Amplitude and Gravity on Oscillatory Motion of a Simple Pendulum

The Pendulum app from Exploriments lets you explore the different aspects of pendulum motion with the power of your fingertips. The virtual environment makes it a cinch to interact with a pendulum for adding and removing weights, adjusting its length, varying its amplitude, and - joy of joys - even traveling to different planets to see how alien gravities affect the pendulum. You can travel to our neighborhood star, the Sun, to see an almost comical depiction of what would happen to a pendulum under such a high gravity. The Exploriments Pendulum app supplements laboratory-based learning by letting you try scenarios that are not possible in a laboratory, such as comparing pendulum motion on two different planets or determining value of gravitational acceleration on celestial bodies other than Earth and other similar activities.

The Exploriments Series of interactive simulation-based tools makes conceptual learning in science an engaging and insightful experience. Visit www.exploriments.com to know more.


Activities:

Activity 1: Mass and Time Period of a Pendulum
--- Introduce simple pendulum
--- Explore oscillatory motion of a pendulum
--- Introduce time period of a pendulum and its relationship with oscillations and time
--- Worksheet method mimics recalls real world experimentation, shows the effect of mass on period.

Activity 2: Length and Time Period of a Pendulum
--- App allows adjustment in pendulum length
--- Verify the relationship between time period and length of a pendulum
--- Worksheet for encouraging multiple readings
--- Automatic Time^2 - Length graph plotted to illustrate the dependency of period on length.

Activity 3: Pendulum motion on Different Planets
--- Split view to view pendulum motion on two planets (or moon/sun) at a time
--- Ability to compare a base planet to multiple alien gravities
--- Automated synchronization of length, amplitude and time between two view, for better ease
--- Split view also supports a fully manual (UNLOCKED) mode for advanced trials and comparison

Activity 4: Pendulum and Value of Gravitational Acceleration
--- A variable length pendulum with stopwatch, an oscillation counter for calculating period, T.
--- Using the calculated T to determine value of gravitational acceleration
--- Ability to travel to different planets for the chance to verify an experimental value of g with the known standard value.
--- A worksheet to encourage the taking of multiple readings on a single planet. A chance to ponder experimental variability.

Activity 5: Simple Harmonic Motion of a Pendulum
--- Observe the simple harmonic motion in a pendulum via a Displacement-Time plot in plotted in real-time
--- A mathematical model emerges out of a Displacement-Time plot
--- Understand how amplitude and period are represented on the Displacement-Time plot, and how they affect the shape of the SHM curve.


Additional Features:

--- Explore several fascinating attributes of a pendulum, including working of a pendulum as a clock on different planets
--- Travel to the Sun to experience a star’s gravity and appreciate how different it is from that on any other planet
--- A worthy extension to laboratory experience by allowing scenarios involving varying gravities, which that cannot be tried out in a traditional laboratory.
--- Worksheets, timers and instruments serve to make this app a supplement to real world experimentation
--- Easy return to the start with the RESET button