CVE 3216 Engineering Dynamics

Lab Report 2: Equation of motion of compound

Ying Yik Hong Gary

I13003723
BCEGI

Objectives
To determine the radius of gyration of a compound pendulum about its centre of gravity.
To investigate the effect of fulcrum position.
To find the acceleration due to gravity g.
To verify the equation of motion for a compound.

Introduction
In Fig. 1, O is the point of suspension of the compound pendulum and G is its centre of mass; we
consider the force of gravity to be acting at G. If h is the distance from O to G, the equation of motion
of the compound pendulum is
Where I0is the moment of inertia of the compound pendulum about
the point O.
Comparing to the equation of motion for a simple pendulum
We see that the two equations of motion are the same if we take

It is convenient to define the radius of gyration k0 of the compound

pendulum such that if all the mass Mwere at a distance k0 from O,
the moment of inertia about O would be I0, which we do by
writing I0 = Mk02
Substituting this into (1) gives us

The point O, a distance l from O along a line through G, is called the center of oscillation. Let h be
the distance from G to O, so thatl=h+h'. Substituting this into (2), we have

If IG is the moment of inertia of the compound pendulum about its centre of mass, we can also define
the radius of gyration kG about the centre of mass by writing IG = MkG2.
The parallel axis theorem gives us
Comparing to (3), we have,

If we switch h with h, equation (4) doesnt change, so we could have derived it by suspending the
pendulum from O. In that case, the center of oscillation would be at O and the equivalent simple

pendulum would have the same length l. Therefore the period would be the same as when suspended
from O. Thus if we know the location of G, by measuring the period T with suspension at O and at
various points along the extended line from O to G, we can find O and thus h.
Then using equation (4), we can calculate kG and IG = MkG2.
Knowing h gives us l = h + h, and since for small angle oscillations the period

We can calculate g using

The minimum period Tmin , corresponds to the minimum value of l. Recall that l = h + h and
that kG2 = hh' is a constant, depending only on the physical characteristics of the pendulum.
Thus, l=h+kG2/h, and the minimum I occurs when,
i.e, when h2=kG2, h=h' and l=2h=2kG.
Thus, at Tmin, l=2kG.

Apparatus
Compound pendulum apparatus LS-1232, stopwatch.

Procedure
1. A bob weight was fitted onto a meter long bar.
2. The suspension of the weight was adjusted along the bar to fix a pivot. The length of the
centre of the pendulum to the pivot was recorded.
3. The pendulums centre of gravity was displaced to set it into oscillation.
4. The stopwatch was started once the pendulum was in a steady state or simple harmonic
oscillation.
5. The time taken for 20 oscillations was recorded.
6. The experiment was repeated and the time taken for 30 and 40 oscillations was recorded.
7. The time taken was divided for total oscillations with the number of oscillations to obtain the
time for one oscillation.
8. Steps 5 to 7 were repeated with different lengths of pivot to centre of pendulum.
9. The graph of time, t versus length of cord, l was plotted

Results
1. Distance from centre of gravity, x = 0.420m
Time (s)
Oscillations

i
ii
20
27.47
27.62
30
41.27
41.41
40
54.87
55.23
Average time for one oscillation = 1.37

iii
26.84
40.63
54.10

Average
27.31
41.10
54.73

Time for one

oscillation
(s)
1.37
1.37
1.37

Average
26.16
42.46
57.20

Time for one

oscillation
(s)
1.41
1.42
1.43

Average
29.18
43.93
59.20

Time for one

oscillation
(s)
1.46
1.46
1.48

Table 1
2. Distance from centre of gravity, x = 0.493m
Time (s)
Oscillations

i
ii
20
26.21
26.29
30
42.37
42.54
40
57.17
56.76
Average time for one oscillation = 1.42

iii
27.97
42.47
57.68
Table 2

3. Distance from centre of gravity, x = 0.567

Time (s)
Oscillations

i
ii
20
29.18
29.21
30
43.87
44.08
40
59.99
58.87
Average time for one oscillation = 1.47

iii
29.14
43.83
58.74
Table 3

Using the following formula, length of cord, l was found with time taken for one oscillation, t:
2

t
1.37
l=
g=
9.81=0.466 m
2
2

( )

( )

t (s)
1.37
1.42
1.47

l (m)
0.466
0.501
0.537
Table 4

Experimental graph of t vs l
1.5
1.45
Time taken for one oscillation (s)

1.4
1.35
1.3
0.46 0.48 0.5 0.52 0.54 0.56
Length of cord (m)

Graph 1 Experimental graph of t vs l

Slope of graph=

G=

y
1.421.37
=
= 1.43
x 0.5010.466

42
Slope of graph (t vs l)

4
1.43

= 27.61

Using the following formulae, radius of gyration was found:

kA

kG

k A = x

k G = k 2A x 2
Table 5

k A = 0.420 = 0.648
k G = (0.64820.4202) = 0.493

Table
1
2
3

Length of
cord (m)
0.466
0.501
0.537

X (m)

kA

0.420
0.493
0.567

0.648
0.702
0.753
Table 6

(m)

k G (m)

t (s)

g (m/s^2)

0.493
0.500
0.495

1.37
1.42
1.47

9.801
9.809
9.811

A graph for the theoretical t vs l was plotted using the length of cord values found with the formula
2

x +k G

t=2

x 0.422 +0.4932

= 0.774s

Theoretical graph of t vs l
0.95
0.9
0.85
Time taken for one oscillation (s)

0.8
0.75
0.7
0.46 0.48 0.5 0.52 0.54 0.56
Length of cord (m)

Graph 2 Theoretical graph of t vs l

Slope of graph=

t (s)
0.774
0.839
0.900

y 0.8390.774
=
= 1.86
x 0.5010.466
l (m)
0.466
0.501
0.537

Calculating g,
Using the results from Table 6, the theoretical values of t and l were used to calculate g with the
following formula:

g=

l
t
2

0.466
=9.801
1.37 2
2

( ) ( )

Obtaining an average for g,

(9.801+9.809+9.811)/3 = 9.807
Percentage error = [(9.807 (conventional value of g) 9.807) / 9.807] * 100 = 0%

Discussion
The results show that the radius of gyration of

K A is approximately 0.5. The value of g was found

to be 9.807 m/s^2. The result when compared to the conventional value of g had a 0% error.
This could be due to coincidence as there must have been some errors present during the experiment.
There could have been parallax errors and human errors while carrying out the experiment.
From the graphs, it can be deduced that the relationship is directly proportional (t vs l). The gradients
of the two graphs are about the same and this shows in the accurate results obtained.

Conclusion
The equation of motion for a compound pendulum was successfully verified under the assumption
that it acts a simple pendulum and follows the equation

t=2 l/g .

The acceleration due to gravity was found using the equation and the error was 0%.