학술논문

Using a Simple Pendulum to Calculate the Distance between Two Train Stations
Document Type
Journal Articles
Reports - Descriptive
Author
Tham, ClaireYeo, RobinNatarajan, Visshal (ORCID 0000-0003-3689-6788); Zhang, Tianqin (ORCID 0000-0001-5265-9710); Chen, Jer-Ming (ORCID 0000-0002-2500-0969); Krishnaswamy, LakshminarasimhanTan, Da Yang (ORCID 0000-0002-4824-1060)
Source
Physics Teacher. Dec 2022 60(9):748-751.
Subject
Laboratory Equipment
Science Instruction
Computation
Secondary School Science
College Science
Mechanics (Physics)
Motion
Scientific Concepts
Concept Formation
Language
English
ISSN
0031-921X
1943-4928
Abstract
In this article, we demonstrate the use of a simple pendulum to explore the concepts of kinematics and dynamics. A simple homemade pendulum and a phone-based accelerometer are used to determine, at various points in time, the acceleration of a moving train. The dynamical and kinematics data from the homemade pendulum and the accelerator can then be compared, and this in turn highlights the relationship between dynamical and kinematics quantities. This project is originally part of a coursework requirement assigned to the first four authors for their introductory classical mechanics course at a university in the summer of 2020. Similar ideas have been explored earlier independent of this work, but this work will focus on the detailed description of our approach and using updated technologies as our benchmark. The project is one that can be implemented readily as an activity in high school physics classes.