Indoor Microgravity Survey

摘要

There are many lab exercises for upper-level school students and freshman undergraduates to measure the value of the local acceleration due to gravity (g) near Earth's surface. In these exercises, the value of g is usually taken to be constant. The approach is often based on measuring the period of a pendulum that is inversely proportional to the square root ofg. Traditional measurements of the period of a simple or inclined pendulum~(1,2) involve use of a stopwatch to measure the time required to complete a number of oscillations, but other more sophisticated measurement techniques for greater accuracy, such as a photogate timing system,~3 measuring the time-dependent tension on the string,~4.