Question

Suppose you wanted to do an experiment to find out if changing the length of a pendulum changed the amount of time it takes the pendulum to swing back and forth. Which pendulums from the above diagram would you use for the experiment?
a.1 and 4
b.2 and 4
c.1 and 3
d.2 and 5
e.all

Answer 1

Hi!

Assuming that W = weight.
Weight has to be equal so that you can concentrate on time change because of varying length.

If you change weight as well, the experiment would not be very accurate and would result in a failure.

So, the right answer is C. 1 and 3.

Hope this helped!

Answer 2

If you started out knowing nothing about pendulums, then you'd
want to use #1 and #3 for an experiment with meaningful results.

Why ?

Thinking clearly, you'd look at a swinging pendulum, and realize that
there are only two things about it that might affect its period: 
==> its length, and ==> the weight on the end of it.

Since this first experiment focuses on the length, you want to keep
everything else constant.  So you'd want to compare pendulums
with different lengths but the same weight.

Later on, you'll do the other experiment.  You'll compare pendulums
with the same length but different weights.