Factors Affecting Focus

Today during my free period I was able to yet again see physics in everyday life. Last week and this week we have been discussing how different factors affect an outcome. Like in pendulums. Length was the factor that caused the pendulum to change a certain trend. So, what happened in my free period was I went down to Paki to hang out with my friend Jaclyn. A free period of mine usually consists of homework and getting things done. But today when I changed something in my typical routine like adding a friend I realized that my free period quickly become very unproductive. Instead of doing my english homework I decided to watch YouTube videos. Instead of doing math I decided to listen to music. So I got to experience how friends affect focus and productivity during free periods. I realized that certain factors do affect the outcome of something.

Pendulums in Everyday Life

This week in class we learned about pendulums and how different factors affect the period of it. We set up an experiment that allowed us to observe periods and how factors affect it. Here is a picture of a clock in my grandmas kitchen. Inside of the clock there was a pendulum hanging. In class we learned that neither mass nor angle affects the period of a pendelum. The thing hay affects the period of the pendulum is the length of it. The longer the pendulum the longer the period. From, looking at this clock I can assume that the period of its pendulum would be much shorter then a pendulum measuring 12 inches. In fact the pendulum's period for one full swing was not even a second. It is pretty interesting being able to understand something like this, and to see how things work. Before we started the activity we made predictions and I had predicted that longer pendulums would create shorter periods. I now know that I was absolutely incorrect. This experiment was glimpse of physics and how things aren't always what they seem. Wouldn't it seem logical for a heavier mass to make something swing longer? But through this experiment I learned that it wasn't.