Contents
What is the energy Lab in Kona?
Natural Energy Lab
The Natural Energy Lab administers the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park, just to the south of the airport on Kalihi Point.
What is the purpose of the pendulum experiment?
The goal of this experiment was to determine the effect of mass and length on the period of oscillation of a simple pendulum. Using a photogate to measure the period, we varied the pendulum mass for a fixed length, and varied the pendulum length for a fixed mass.
What does the pendulum swing reveal about energy?
An ideal pendulum system always contains a stable amount of mechanical energy, that is, the total of kinetic plus potential energy. As the pendulum swings back and forth, the balance between the two types of energy changes constantly. At some points in its swing, the pendulum has more kinetic energy.
What is the energy transfer in a pendulum?
A pendulum is a simple example of energy transfer – converting potential energy to kinetic energy over and over until the small amount of energy lost to heat and air resistance causes the pendulum to come to rest.
What was the initial purpose of the Natural Energy Lab in Hawaii?
The original mission was for research into the uses of deep ocean water in ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) renewable energy production and in aquaculture.
What does a pendulum symbolize?
The pendulum itself represents two things: the passage of time and death. Pendulums are used in clocks to determine and mark the passing of each second. As the pendulum swings back and forth, it is like a countdown.
What is the pendulum theory?
a law, discovered by Galileo in 1602, that describes the regular, swinging motion of a pendulum by the action of gravity and acquired momentum. the theory holding that trends in culture, politics, etc., tend to swing back and forth between opposite extremes.
Does a pendulum lose energy?
The pendulum loses energy to wind resistance, friction between the tube and the string, and internal friction within the bending string. The pendulum must be “started” by swinging it by hand before the driver can transfer energy into it.
Will a pendulum stop?
A pendulum is an object hung from a fixed point that swings back and forth under the action of gravity. The swing continues moving back and forth without any extra outside help until friction (between the air and the swing and between the chains and the attachment points) slows it down and eventually stops it.
How does a pendulum lose energy?
The pendulum loses energy to wind resistance, friction between the tube and the string, and internal friction within the bending string. Then the driver allows the force of gravity to convert some of that extra energy to kinetic energy, by allowing the bob to fall an extra distance at large angles.
How can you tell when energy has been transferred?
When an object falls the gravitational potential energy it possessed is converted to kinetic energy. When it has fallen half of the way down, half of the energy will have been transferred and so on.
What does it mean when a pendulum swings back and forth?
This back and forth motion is called “oscillation.” Its position is said to oscillate back and forth. The period is the amount of time it takes the bob to make one round trip. If the pendulum bob is pulled back and released, it returns to the hand that released it after a time interval equal to one period.
How is the energy of a pendulum conserved?
Kinetic energy is energy of motion. At every point in the motion of the pendulum the total mechanical energy is conserved. The sum of the gravitational potential energy and the kinetic energy, at each point of the motion, is a constant, which is the total mechanical energy.
What happens when you let go of a pendulum?
What’s interesting about a pendulum, though, is that when you let go of it, the potential energy gradually transforms into kinetic energy. And then it gets faster and faster until it reaches the lowest point of the swing. At that point the kinetic energy starts transforming back into potential energy on the other end of the swing.
What kind of string do you need for a pendulum?
Any thin cotton string or strong thread will do for this demonstration. A thick string won’t swing well. Washers are easy to tie and heavy, but other objects will work. The washer should be at least ½ inch in diameter. (Smaller ones aren’t heavy enough.)