Pendulum: Using a Rotary Motion sensor for simple pendulum investigations

 Use either strong cord or thin wire for the pendulum. Start with a pendulum 0.7 m long. Attach as shown.  Connect the Rotary Motion sensor to an EasySense data logger. The range of the Rotary Motion sensor should be set to Pendulum.

 With the pendulum hanging freely, press the reset zero button on the sensor.  Open the EasySense program and select Graph. From the wizard select a suitable duration with an interval of 20 ms e.g.

 Set the pendulum swinging through an angle of less than 10 degrees either side of vertical.  Select Start to begin logging.  Reduce the length of the pendulum by 0.1 m. Select Overlay and repeat.  Continue until the length of the pendulum is reduced to 0.2 m.

Time

10 seconds

Interval

20 ms

Trigger

Falls below 5 deg