Education Technology


Swing Thing

Activity Overview

In this activity, students will construct a pendulum and create a motion plot for a swinging pendulum. They will also identify characteristics that affect a pendulum's motion.

Key Steps

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    Students swing a pendulum and use the distance-time graph to calculate the period of the pendulum.

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    After identifying the factors that might change the period, students investigate those factors experimentally and then use the data table to make conclusions.

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    This sample data was collected in order to study the relationship between the length of a pendulum and the period.