- Aerated Water
- Air Engine
- Air Table
- Are you Hot or Not?
- Balancing Act
- Bending Beams
- Block the gap
- Braille
- Bridge the Gap
- Chalk Wall
- Changing Faces
- Chaotic Motion
- Circle of Discovery
- Circle of Discovery- The Internet
- Circle of Discovery-Bridge Design
- Circle of Discovery-Ideas hub
- Circle of Discovery-Internet
- Circle of Discovery-Medicine
- Circle of Discovery-photography
- Circle of Discovery: Design - Earthquake
- Circulation
- Colour Wheel
- Communication Codes
- Communication Dishes
- Computer
- Crystallography
- Digestive System
- Down the Drain
- Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Fibre Optics
- Flight Simulator
- Gear Table
- Handshake Mirror
- Harmonograph
- High Flyer
- Hit the Target
- Horizontal Periscope
- Human Battery
- It's Electric
- Larger Than Life
- Lift Me Pull You
- Light Table
- Lock Box
- Making Waves
- Mini Harmonograph
- Mobile Phone
- Move It
- Nervous System
- Newtons Cradle
- Organ Pipe
- Organ Pipe Tune
- Oscillating Pendulums
- Pendulums
- People Power
- Periscope
- Prove Pythagoras
- Radar
- Radio Station
- Reactable
- Reflection Refraction
- Robot Arm
- Science of Sport
- Sensation
- Simple Camera
- Simple Circuits
- Smoke Tunnel
- Solar Energy
- Sound Waves
- Structures and Stresses
- Telescope
- The Exhibition
- The Eye
- The Lung and Chest Cavity
- The Wheel Race
- Thermal Imager
- Tornado
- Tower of Hanoi
- Universe Wall
- Up and Down
- Vertical Periscope
- Viscosity
- Viscosity Plungers
- Volume and Mass
- Vortex
- Watch Your Waste
- Weight Lifter
- Wheels Within Wheels
- Wind Tunnel
Pendulums
Activity.... Do – Think - Learn
A pendulum is a weight (a bob) suspended on a string, rod or wire. Here there are three different activities that show how pendulums behave.
Keeping time
Can you make the pendulum swing in time with the light flashing?
If you change the length of the pendulum how does this affect its movement?
Why does this happen?
Swing time
Does it matter if the pendulums have different starting positions? Do they swing at the same speed?
Snake pendulum
Line the pendulums up along the board and then lower it. Watch carefully. What do you notice?
The Science Bit
The pendulum and the way it reacts have given scientists an insight into the way the Earth moves and the forces that act upon it. If you pull the pendulum taught and release it, it will begin to travel back and forth through and arc shape, the swinging motion and travelling pattern is produced due to the force of gravity. The arch shape will gradually get smaller and smaller until it comes to a complete stop, this will mainly be due to air friction.
A period of swing is the time it takes for the bob to travel through the arc and back again. As the arc size decreases so does the speed that the bob is travelling but the period of swing remains constant.
If the length of the wire is known and the period is accurately timed then the acceleration of gravity can be calculated.
Curriculum Links
Pushes and pulls
- That there are many sorts of movement which can be described in many ways
- To observe and describe different ways of moving
- That pushing or pulling can make objects start or stop moving
- To identify similarities and differences between the movement of different objects
- To make suggestions about how objects can be made to move and to find out whether they are right
- That is not only ourselves that make things move
- To ask questions about what is causing movement
forces and movement
- That pushes and pulls can make things speed up or slow down or change direction
- To suggest questions about ways in which different objects can move
- Pushes and pulls are examples of forces
forces in action
- That several forces may act on one object
Last Modified: 27/07/2011
