Reversible pendulum

Principle

By means of a reversible pendulum, terrestrial gravitational acceleration g may be determined from the period of oscillation of a physical pendulum, knowing neither the mass nor the moment of inertia of the latter.

Benefits

• Quick and easy set-up
• Determine the gravitational constant g immediately without knowledge of mass or moment of inertia
• Automatically measure the oscillation period using the light barrier

Tasks

1. Measurement of the period for different axes of rotation.
2. Determination of terrestrial gravitational acceleration g.

What you can learn about

• Physical pendulum
• Moment of inertia
• Steiner's law
• Reduced length of pendulum
• Reversible pendulum
• Terrestrial gravitational acceleration