TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Into the Swing of Things
Students learn the basic properties of periodic and harmonic motion, and how the rearrangement of the simple pendulum equation can be used to solve for gravitational acceleration, pendulum length, and gravity. At lesson end, students are...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Swinging With Style
Students experientially learn about the characteristics of a simple physics phenomenon - the pendulum - by riding on playground swings. They use pendulum terms and a timer to experiment with swing variables. They extend their knowledge...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Swing in Time
Students examine the motion of pendulums and come to understand that the longer the string of the pendulum, the fewer the number of swings in a given time interval. They see that changing the weight on the pendulum does not have an...
American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Swinging Atwood's Machine Model
Variation on the standard Atwood's Machine model, where one hanging mass swings like a pendulum and the other remains stationary. Manipulate the conditions and observe the results.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: The Science of Swinging
Students learn what a pendulum is and how it works in the context of amusement park rides. While exploring the physics of pendulums, they are also introduced to Newton's first law of motion - about continuous motion and inertia.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Magnetic Pendulums
See how electricity and magnetism interact with this activity. Activity has students creating a current by swinging a copper coil through a magnetic field. The copper coil will start a second coil swinging as well.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Coupled Resonant Pendulums 2
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.
Exploratorium
Exploratorium: Science Snacks: Resonant Pendulum
An experiment in resonance that demonstrates how to make a pendulum swing widely by exerting only a small force.
PBS
Pbs Kids: Zoom Science: Introduction to Pendulums
What is a pendulum? What makes it swing? Who was Leon Foucault? Discover the answers to these and related questions.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Trig and Forces: The Pendulum
Using Newton's Laws of motion to calculate the acceleration of a pendulum as well as to compute and draw its position along the swing and move about the screen in a computationally based graphic system.
National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
Magnet Academy: Inductive Pendulum
Get the swing of electromagnetic induction with this simple tutorial. (Java tutorial)
Physics Aviary
Physics Aviary: Practice Problems: Determining G From Pendulum
Students must calculate the strength of the gravitational field based on the swinging motion of a pendulum.
Physics Aviary
Physics Aviary: Practice Problems: Robin Hood Swing
Students must predict how far Robin Hood will move horizontally as he first swings like a pendulum and then sails like a projectile into a lake below. This video explains the problem: https://youtu.be/4ZEmvPEJTW4
TOPS Learning Systems
Tops Learning Systems: Top Science: Paper Clip Pendulums [Pdf]
Investigate how the length of a pendulum's chain or string affects the frequency of its swings.
Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments: Swinging Along
Students model the data from the motion of a pendulum by a periodic function. They relate its parameters to the time for one period, the distance it is pulled back, and its distance from the motion detector.
American Association of Physics Teachers
Com Padre Digital Library: Open Source Physics: Two Springs and a Pendulum Model
Swing virtual pendulums and compare the motion of one oscillating weight on a horizontal spring to a second weight on another spring. Then, compare how these motions differ from the motion of a simple pendulum.
Physics Aviary
Physics Aviary: Practice Problems: Energy of Displaced Pendulum
Students must predict the speed a pendulum bob will have after it has reached the lowest point of its swing.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Swinging on a String
Students explore how pendulums work and why they are useful in everyday applications. In a hands-on activity, they experiment with string length, pendulum weight and angle of release. In an associated literacy activity, students explore...
Other
My Physics Lab: Simple Pendulum
Experiment with a pendulum to see what happens to the oscillation when you change the mass, gravity, or damping. Students can also change the starting position. Site includes equations to help students understand what is happening in the...
Other
My Physics Lab: Double Pendulum
Experiment with a double pendulum to see what happens to the oscillation when you change the mass, gravity, or damping. Students can also change the starting position. The site includes equations to help students understand what is...
Google
Google for Education: Modeling Pendulums Using Computational Thinking
In this demonstration, students learn how to use computational thinking to discover the laws which govern a pendulum's swing.
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Energy of Motion
By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Kinetic and Potential Energy of Motion
In this lesson, students are introduced to both potential energy and kinetic energy as forms of mechanical energy. A hands-on activity demonstrates how potential energy can change into kinetic energy by swinging a pendulum, illustrating...
Concord Consortium
The Concord Consortium: Molecular Workbench: Conservation of Momentum
View a simulation that shows the reaction to a cart on wheels carrying a swinging pendulum.