Lab 1

Power Law Inertial Pendulum

August 29 2016

Purpose: 

To find the relationship between mass and period using an inertial balance.

Theory: 

Mass is a measure of matter contained within a given object. It can also be said that mass is an object's resistance to motion, called inertia. We can identify an object's mass through it's relationship to inertia. By measuring time and period of an unknown mass moving in a pendulum we can then access what the mass is by calculating its oscillation.

Procedure: 

To begin we use logger pro with a photogate acting as a period detector. The pendulum will swing through the photogate allowing us to ascertain the period. We then place weights on the metal piece that is attached to the inertial balance. With the data we gather we can graph the functions. We can then find the measurement for the period of an unknown mass of an object.

T=period 

Y=Y-intercept

T = Y(m+Mtray)^n

Ln(T) = n*Ln(m + Mtray) + Ln(A)

We add 0-800 gram weights in 100 gram increments to our balance to obtain our function, depicted below.

The mass of Mtray happens to have an upper and lower bound, which we must respect when calculating our mass for our two objects. Upper bound was 320; 280 is the lower bound. Beyond this range, our plot ceases to function. After obtaining the period of the two objects we put that information in the power law equation in order to determine mass.

M = (T/Y)^1/n - Mtray

Regrettably there are no pictures documenting this stage. Objects used are a phone and a calculator.

Actual measured mass for these objects are 221g and 167g respectively.

Conclusion:

We were able to successfully use the power law equation for period and mass to determine the weight of an object. Because of human error and the nature of our apparatus the numbers that we got were not exact.