Get into the swing of things. Pupils use a pendulum to demonstrate the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy and back. After measuring the speed of a pendulum and compare it to the calculated theoretical speed, they...

Passing a copper wire coil through a magnetic field influences another coil to also sway. It is with this demonstration that you can teach your physical science fans about electromagnetism. Note that the assembly requires about an hour,...

Don't kick the resource to the curb; you'll definitely regret it. Future engineers devise a kicking machine that launches a ping-pong ball toward a target. They can use a pendulum, a rubber band, or both, depending on whether they want...

Why is the weather man wrong so often? Young climatologists discover how chaos rules both weather and climate through a math-based activity. Using an iterative equation, the class examines how small day-to-day weather events total up to...

Shake up your lessons on earthquakes. A simple seismograph lets scholars record "earthquakes" in the classroom. These earthquakes occur when classmates drop balls from different heights. Young scientists measure these with seismographs...

Take a trip through time. A lesson resource provides instruction on the origin of current measurements for time. The text explains the different tools humans used throughout history to measure time as well as provides examples such as...

An interactive simulation that teaches about periodic motion, simple harmonic motion, and conservation of energy. Observe one or two pendulums to determine how the swing is influenced by the length of the string, the mass of the pendulum...

Manipulate the mass of a weight and the length of string in this interactive pendulum simulation. Change the speed, friction, and gravity to make the pendulum swing change as measurements are displayed on the screen. Younger students can...

Kids love to ride the swings at the playground. The back-and-forth motion of a swing demonstrates the physics of a pendulum. In this experiment, you will investigate the factors that affect the speed and duration of a pendulum's swing.

Using a simulation, students will determine that the pendulum period is affected by the length of the pendulum and gravity but not mass in this activity.

Students learn about the Foucault pendulum, an engineering tool used to demonstrate and measure the Earth's rotation. Student groups then create small experimental versions, each comprised of a pendulum and a video camera mounted on a...

Students investigate the motion of a simple pendulum through direct observation and data collection using Android devices and the AccelDataCapture app.

Understand about a pendulum's natural or resonant frequency in this activity where you create your own pendulums. Students make a pendulum out of PVC pipe, string, and hex nuts.

Understand the concept of resonance to allow you to cause two pendulums to swing in an identical cycle. Pendulum are constructed from simple materials like string, pencils, paper clips, and pennies.

An experiment in resonance that demonstrates how to make a pendulum swing widely by exerting only a small force.

Learn about Newton's Pendulum will Bill Nye as you watch this demonstration of some of the most fundamental laws of physics and mechanics. [0:52]

Investigate how the length of a pendulum's chain or string affects the frequency of its swings.

Create a clock that accurately keeps time using a pendulum.

This activity Pendulum from Holt Physics Chapter 11 Vibrations and Waves uses the calculator and the VIB program calculate the period of a pendulum on different planets.

This activity demonstrates how potential energy (PE) can be converted to kinetic energy (KE) and back again. Given a pendulum height, students calculate and predict how fast the pendulum will swing by understanding conservation of energy...

This activity shows students the engineering importance of understanding the laws of mechanical energy. More specifically, it demonstrates how potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy and back again. Given a pendulum height,...

A series of thought-intensive, multichoice questions concerning pendulums and provided for by the University of Maryland. A downloadable software program on pendulums is also included.

In this activity, students' will use a motion detector to plot the position versus time graph for a swinging pendulum. They will determine the period of the motion and model the position data using a cosine function.

In this activity, students explore the nonlinear model for a simple pendulum. They use the calculator to solve higher order differential equations.