Analytical and experimental determination of gravity and moment of inertia using a physical pendulum

Abstract

Searching to encourage and increase the desire of students to seek a vocation in the study of engineering and science, we wanted to implement and validate experimentally and numerically, the study of the movement of a mechanical oscillator using, in this case, a physical pendulum, formed by a bar and a disk. In this article has done the study the physical pendulum, combining a methodology that involves an experimental arrangement and the implementation of simulations developed in Python, with the aim objective of offering to students a visual and interactive experience, so that they can understand in a simpler way topics covered in the theoretical physics course, in such a way that is different from the typical physical-mathematical formalism. This study was carried out with low cost materials and easy access, in addition to the great social impact that I had against the acceptance and assessment by the students with whom this work was applied. This work was developed in three phases: first, to measure the period of oscillation of a physical pendulum experimentally. Second, the approach of the analytical model to compare with the experimental results. Third, the development of a dynamic simulator according to the predictions of the theoretical model. The students found a didactic and different way of studying the physical pendulum. Finally, it was possible to demonstrate a self-consistency between the experimental and numerical results of the system studied in this work.