PHY 231
Your 'question form' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
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I am completing the Introduction to Key Systems Assignment and doing the follow-up questions for the Introduction to Pendulum Assignment found here:
http://vhcc2.vhcc.edu/ph1fall9/frames_pages/new_default_2.htm .
Question number three I do not understand found here:
http://vhcc2.vhcc.edu/ph1fall9/frames_pages/new_default_2.htm .
Here are the exact instructions:
Is the graph of time required for one cycle vs. length in cm constant, increasing or decreasing? Is it doing so at an increasing, constant or decreasing rate?
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What do you mean specifically by the graph of time? I am looking at my graph of cycles vs. length. Where is this time variable shown, or what is it referring to? And what does it mean by required or not? Should I be looking at another graph?
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The instruction refers to the 'time required for one cycle'. For example if there are 40 cycles in a minute, then the time required for one cycle is 1.5 seconds.
I could have defined this as the period of the oscillation and asked for period vs. length, which would probably have been preferable in your case (and in general; the definition would have been less ambiguous), but at this point in the course half the class would have gotten lost between the definition and the request.
The phrase 'time required for one cycles' is less compact, but I believe in the context of this experiment it's less ambiguous for most students.