Experimental

Before the individual parts of the experiment, the base and the rotating platform were leveled. In
Part 1, the mass of the object was recorded, and the object was hung from the side post and
connected by a string to the spring. The clamp-on pulley was attached to the end of the track near
the hanging object. A string was attached from the hanging object, placed over the pulley, and
used to hang a known mass (Figure 1). A radius was selected by aligning the post with a certain
position along the side of the rotating platform. In order to make the object hang vertically, the
center post bracket attached to the spring was adjusted. The indicator bracket was aligned with
the orange indicator. The mass and pulley were removed from the end of the rotating platform.
The Photogate was prepared and Logger Pro was opened. The setting was assigned as
pendulum timing and data collection time was 10 seconds. The apparatus was rotated and the
voltage was slowly increased. The Photogate was turned on to collect when the orange indicator
aligned with the bracket which indicated that the string was aligned with the vertical. A new
radius was selected, and the process was repeated a total of seven times.

















Figure 1. Depiction of the set up apparatus with hanging mass, pulley, side post assembly, sting, center post
assembly, rotating platform, and base.

In part 2, the mass of the object was once again recorded, and the object was hung from the side
post and connected by a string to the spring. The clamp on pulley was attached to the end of the
track and a string attached to a known mass was placed over the pulley and attached to the
hanging object. A radius was selected by moving the side post along the rotating platform. The
center post spring bracket was adjusted so that the object hung vertically. The indicator bracket
was aligned with the orange indicator. The mass and the pulley were removed. The apparatus
was rotated at increasing speeds until the orange indicator was aligned with the indicator bracket.
Using the Photogate, the data was collected at this force level. The pulley was clamped to the
track again and a different mass was hung from the pulley. This was repeated for a total of seven
trials where only the mass hung differed.