Pendulums

1.What is your personal experience on swinging on anything like a trapeze?
The only thing that comes to my mind is children's swings on the playground.

2.What applications to "real life"do swinging objects have?
They have application in children's swings, in grandfather clocks, in gymnastics in gymnastics rings, and chandeliers.
3.What is your prediction about what will happen if two people are on one trapeze and only one is on the other and they both let go at the same time?

I believe that it will take the same amount of time for both trapezes ( the one with two people and the one with one person) to complete the full swing.  I am not sure why exactly I think that is the case, it is just my conviction.

4.What understanding or ideas do you have about the science of back -and -forth swinging objects?
I have to admit I don't have much understanding. It was a long time ago that I was taught anything from physics in high school.

Predictions about frequency of the pendulum
Based on frequency of one washer predict the frequency for two, three, and four washer pendulums.
I believe that frequency of two,three and four swisher pendulums will increase with the number of washers we put on pendulum. I may not be right about this. I just think that possibly more mass might mean more physical force and hence more frequency in pendulums with the increase of number of wishers. After we have conducted our experiment counting the number of swings the pendulum made with different number of washers I realized my prediction was wrong. When we increased the number of washers on pendulum the frequency of the pendulum swings stayed the same. So the weight of a swinging object does not affect the frequency of its swing.

Open Inquiry

List of my personal questions related to the pendulum activity
1. I am wondering why the numbers of complete swings stays the same when we change the number of washers that we put on the pendulum?
2. What would happen if we change the angle of the swing?
3. What would happen if we changed the length of a thin cord of the pendulum?
4. What would affect the length of the swing of the pendulum?
5. How can we get the shortest or longest swing?

a.Which of these questions can be investigated using the activity materials we used in our experiment?
I believe that all of the questions could be investigated by using the materials we were given for the experiment.
b. Which questions require additional materials? What are they?
To change the length of the cord of the pendulum, we could either use two other cords of different length to do our trials.  To change the angle of the pendulum we would just have to use another piece of paper to  mark the different angle size for our purpose.
c.  Which questions are beyond the scope of this activity to find answers?
I don't believe I had questions that go beyond the scope of this activity, but if there was something I would make sure to research the science of pendulum either in books of Physics or online resources for the same.
d. Identify three questions you personally are more interested in investigating. Why are these questions interesting or important to you?
The interesting questions would be:
1. How can we get the shortest or longest swing?
2. How does gravity force affects the movement of the washer and its speed?
3. What would happen if we change the angle of the swing?
Why are these questions interesting or important to you?
I believe that by trying to find answers on these questions I could learn the science of pendulum, and some basic laws of physics that govern the motion of pendulum.