How does the period of a pendulum vary with the number of strings?

Abstract

This article serves as an extension of analysis of a simple pendulum, a typical example of simple harmonic motion and a common topic in high school physics syllabus. Since the analysis of a simple pendulum ignores the mass of the string in order to model the system as a point mass, a more complex pendulum system consisting of heavy strings and a pendulum bob is explored in this article. Based on theoretical analysis of the model, a relationship between the number of strings and the period of the pendulum is investigated. An experiment was also conducted on a pendulum system using copper wire, a glass bob, a stand, clamps, a clip and a stopwatch. To obtain more accurate results, time taken for five periods was measured three times for each number of strings. A graph is drawn based on data acquired from the experiment and the theoretically deduced relationship is therefore verified. Further study of the general expression for the period of an object that cannot be modelled as a point mass oscillating about a fixed axis is involved. Application of the principle that a change in the position of the center of mass of a pendulum causes a change in its period in Big Ben is also discussed along with a brief introduction of its pendulum structure.