1

1.0 ABSTRACT

This experiment was conducted in order to determine the mass moment of inertia at
the centre of gravity, I
G
and at the suspension points, I
01
and I
02
by oscillation. From the
experiment conducted, the finding is that there are some differences between the values of
I
o
and I
G
from the experiment data and also from the theoretical value. The potential factors
that cause to the differences in the values are discussed. It was observed that the wooden
pendulum oscillates in non-uniform motion especially when it is suspended at I
02
. Based on
the experiment, we have found that the value of I
G
and I
o
from both suspension points is
totally different although they shared the same value of mass of the wooden pendulum. The
period is also different for both point setting. After the data was taken, the period of
oscillation, T
1
and T
2
are obtained from the two different suspension points. Hence, after
getting T values, then the value of I
G
and I
O
can be measured. The errors that occurred might
be due to the disturbance from the surrounding and human effects. The time for 10
oscillations was taken manually by using stopwatch. By the end of this experiment, the value
of I
G
and I
O
were able to be calculated by using the theoretical calculation.

2.0 INTRODUCTION (BACKGROUND)

A pendulum is an object that is attached to a pivot point so it can swing freely. This
object is subject to a restoring force that will accelerate it toward an equilibrium position.
When the pendulum is displaced from its place of rest, the restoring force will cause the
pendulum to oscillate about the equilibrium position. In other words, a weight attached to a
string swings back and forth.

Body suspended from a fixed point so that it can swing back and forth under the influence of
gravity. A simple pendulum consists of a bob (weight) suspended at the end of a string. The periodic
motion of a pendulum is constant, but can be made longer or shorter by increasing or decreasing the
length of the string. A change in the mass of the bob alone does not affect the period.

Physical pendulum is small compared with the length of the cable. When these
approximations are not sufficient, one must take into account the way in which mass is
distributed in the cable and bob. This is called the physical pendulum, as opposed to the
idealized model of the simple pendulum. Significantly, the period of a physical pendulum
does not depend on its total mass either. Examples of applications are Schuler tuning and
Coupled pendulums and pendulum clock.




2

3.0 OBJECTIVE

1. To determine the mass moment of inertia, (I
G
& I
0
) by oscillation and by manual
calculations.
2. To compared the mass moment inertia between experimental calculation and
theoretical calculation.

4.0 THEORY

A physical pendulum is a rigid body suspended from some point other than its center of
mass. It is simply a rigid object which swings freely about some pivot point. The physical
pendulum may compare with a simple pendulum, which consists of a small mass suspended
by a string. In this lab, his physical pendulum is stick with pivot fixed point at center of mass.
For small displacement, the period T of a physical pendulum is independent of its amplitude,
and

Where I is the rotational inertia of the pendulum about its rotation axis, m is the total mass
of the pendulum, g is the acceleration of gravity and r is the distance from the rotation axis
to the center of mass.
This is the equation of a harmonic oscillator; the solution is

And is related to the period T by

3

T depends only on the distribution of mass within the object, not on the total mass. T can be
used to compute g, if the moment of inertia I am known. The moment of inertia I about the
pivot point is related to the moment of inertia about the centre of mass I
o
by the parallel
axis theorem, which states

Moment at O:

Clockwise direction.

if angle is small.

By using Newtons Law for rotation:

Note that this equation has the same shape with the general equation of simple harmonic
motion. Furthermore, we can obtain natural frequency of this system:

Meanwhile, periodic time (T) is the time taken to complete one cycle.(or 2 radian). So that :

For this rigid body,moment of inertia at point O is:

where

is the moment of inertia at the center of gravity.

where is the radius of gyration at the center of gravity.

4

Note that we can determine the radius of gyration for a rigid body by using this equation.

5.0 APPARATUS AND PROCEDURE



1. The length, thickness, and wide of the wooden pendulum were measured using a ruler.
2. A physical pendulum was set up by suspending a wooden pendulum to a retort stand.
3. An angle of 10
o
was fixed where the wooden pendulum was released to oscillate from
this angle.
4. The pendulum was allowed to oscillate about point O
1.

5. Then, the period of oscillation, T
1
was measured for three times.
6. The average of the period was calculated.
7.
The process was repeated for different suspension point which was point O
2
and period
of oscillation; T
2
was measured for three times.

8. The average of the three periods was calculated for each suspension point.
9. Equations from Mathematical and Physical Pendulum were used to determine the mass
moment of inertia (I
G
and I
o
).




5



Number Name of Apparatus
1 Wooden Pendulum
2 Stop Watch
3 V-slot
4 Rod Support
5 Protector
6 Ruler





1
4
6
3
2
5
6

6.0 DATA AND RESULT

O
1
(V Support)
Point Angle(
0
) Oscillation Time (s)
1
10
10 14.07
2 10 14.03

O
2
(Rod Support)
Point Angle (
0
) Oscillation Time (s)
1
10
10 13.75
2 10 13.78


6.1 Experimental Calculation
To Find T
1
and T
2
:

To Find L
1
and L
2
:

7

To Find R
G
:

To Find I
01
and I
02
:

To Find I
G
:

8

6.2 Theoretical Calculations

Outer rectangular,
1
A
Inner Rectangular,
2
A
Inner Circle,
d
Diagram

Dimension
l = 0.8m
w =0.08m
l = 0.45m
w = 0.01m
d = 0.025m
Area
2
1 1
m 0.064
0.08 0.8
=
=
= w l

2
2 2
m 0.0045
01 . 0 0.45
=
=
= w l

( )

m 10 4.9087
10 5 . 2
4
4
2 4 -
2
3
2
=
=
=

t
t
d

Mass



















kg m
m
m
A
m
A
t
t
651 . 0
6 . 0
059 . 0 064 . 0
1
1
1
1
=
=
=
kg m
m
m
A
m
A
t
046 . 0
6 . 0
059 . 0 0045 . 0
2
2
2 2
2
=
=
=
kg m
m
m
A
m
A
t
t
3
3
3
4 -
3
3
10 991 . 4
6 . 0
059 . 0 10 4.9087

=
=

=
2
4 -
3 2 1
m 059 . 0
10 4.9087 0045 . 0 064 . 0
=
=
= A A A A
t
( )
3
2
16 . 1030
01 . 0 04 . 0
4
) 01 . 0 01 . 0 45 . 0 ( ) 01 . 0 08 . 0 8 . 0 (
6 . 0
m kg
v
m
=
|
.
|

\
|

=
=

9

For Point 1:












Total
0
I :



At point 0
1






1
y is measured from top
( ) ( ) ( )
( )( ) ( )( ) ( )( )
m 3932 . 0
059 . 0
10 4.909 05 . 0 0045 . 0 528 . 0 064 . 0 4 . 0

05 . 0 528 . 0 4 . 0

4 -
3 2 1
1
=

=

=
=

t
A
A A A
A
yA
y



From Equation:

2
5 -
03 02 01
0.1240
10 1.267 0.0136 0.1389
kgm
I I I I
t
=
=
=


( )
2
2 2
2
1
2
1 01
1389 . 0
4 . 0 651 . 0 8 . 0 651 . 0
12
1

12
1
kgm
md mh I
=
+ =
+ =
( )
2
2 2
2
2
2
2 02
0136 . 0
528 . 0 046 . 0 45 . 0 046 . 0
12
1

12
1
kgm
md mh I
=
+ =
+ =
( )
2 5
2 3 2 3
2
3
2
3 03
10 267 . 1
05 . 0 10 991 . 4 0125 . 0 10 991 . 4
4
1

4
1
kgm
md mr I

=
+ =
+ =
10

For Point 2:













Total
0
I :
2
3 - 3 -
03 02 01
1319 . 0
10 2.808 10 4.179 0.1389
kgm
I I I I
t
=
=
=













From Equation:






At point 0
2






2
y is measured from top
0.4068m
0.3932 0.8
8 . 0
1 2
=
=
= y y


( )
2
2 2
2
1
2
1 01
1389 . 0
4 . 0 651 . 0 8 . 0 651 . 0
12
1

12
1
kgm
md mh I
=
+ =
+ =
( )
2 3
2 2
2
2
2
2 02
10 179 . 4
272 . 0 046 . 0 45 . 0 046 . 0
12
1

12
1
kgm
md mh I

=
+ =
+ =
( )
2 3
2 3 2 3
2
3
2
3 03
10 808 . 2
75 . 0 10 991 . 4 0125 . 0 10 991 . 4
4
1

4
1
kgm
md mr I

=
+ =
+ =
( )
2
2
2
2
0326 . 0
4068 . 0 6 . 0 1319 . 0
kgm I
I
md I I
md I I
G
G
t G
G t
=
=
=
+ =
11

Percentage of error

12



7.0 DISCUSSION

In the end of the experiment, the experimental value for I
01
is 0.1076kgm
2
meanwhile the
theoretical value for I
1
is 0.1240kgm
2
. If we see this, the differences between these two
values are not so wide. The difference is about 0.0164kgm
2
.

Yet, for I
02
, the experimental value is 0.1033kgm
2
meanwhile the value for theoretical is
0.1319kgm
2
. The value difference for I
2
is also not so much.

For I
G1
, the experimental value is 0.0274kgm
2
and the theoretical value for I
G
is 0.0312 kgm
2
.
Yet, the value of experimental for I
G2
is 0.0231kgm
2
. These values are also giving quite big
differences between them.

The difference values of percentage error between experiment and theoretical showed that
some errors has occur during the experiments. During the experiment, angle must be set
correctly in order to gain accurate data. Since the angle is just mark by pencil only, it might
contribute to the personal error. Besides that, there is also parallax error which happens
when the eye level is not parallel to the scalar position .

Systematic error is also occurred because of the apparatus is not in a good condition. The
swings are affected by the condition of the wooden pendulum itself which had been used so
many times. At some point, the reading may be affected.

Other than that, error due to environment effects may occur when the swing of the
pendulum may be disturbed by the air flow in the room even though the experiment is
conducted in the closed laboratory. The vibration from the table also affects the swings
consistency.

13

8.0 CONCLUSION

From the experiment, we can conclude that we achieve the objective of the Physical
Pendulum- Wooden Pendulum experiment. The mass moment of inertia (I
G
& I
0
) by
oscillation and manual calculations has been determined. It is found that a pendulum is a
weight suspended from a pivot so that it can swing freely. When a pendulum is displaced
from its equilirium position, it is subjected to a restoring force due to gravity that will
accelerate it back towards the equilibrium posotion. When released, the restoring force
combined with the pendulum mass causes it to oscillate about the equilibrium posotion,
swinging back and forth. A pendulum swings with a specific period which depends mainly on
its length. It is also found out that the values of I
01
, I
G1
, I
02,
and I
G2
are affected by errors and
disturbance during experiment.

From the result, we also can conclude that the experiment was not to be considered
as succesful. There are some factors that affect the results of the experiments and some
considerations has to be taken to improve the experiment in the future. More readings
should be taken and recoreded for each swings so that the differences in value will not be so
much differ.


9.0 REFERENCES

a. Laboratory Manual by Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
b. Vector Mechanic for Engineering by Ferdinand P. Beer, E. Russell Johnston Jr. 8th
Edition
c. Mechanics of Material (seventh Edition) by R.C. Hibbeler - Prentice Hall
d. Henderson, T (2009). Forced Vibration. Retrieved from
http://www.physicsclassroom.com