Teaching and Learning about Time and Pendulum Motion

Abstract

The pendulum has many qualities that make it an admirable device for science teaching. It is simple, tangible, cheap, and it also embodies so much rich science, history of science, cultural history, and scientific methodology (epistemology). It is easily manipulated, and thus dependencies of one variable (mass, amplitude, period, length, shape) upon another can be investigated along with skills such as data collection, timing, graphing, interpreting and so on. The pendulum can be refined, and data interpretation made more sophisticated, to take into account air resistance, friction at the support, and compounding effects of the wire. Thus some appreciation of experimental design, method and sources of error can be attained. With suitable elaboration, some basic methodological issues in science can be understood. The pendulum manifests many of the foundational laws of modern mechanics, particularly the conservation laws, and so provides a way of making these laws intelligible. By refining concepts, and refining technology (compound pendulums, conical pendulums, etc.), the pendulum can take students a considerable way into the absorbing world of classical mechanics.