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Re: cavendish expt



PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu writes:
I'm finding that it takes an incredibly long time for
the suspended meterstick to find its equilibrium
position. Once it does, I'll move the buckets in
closer to the bottles of sand and see if I can detect
any torque on the meterstick.

My questions are:

1)Do you think the incredibly small Fg would produce
any effect?
It does...the PSSC film Forces shows this quite nicely, be sure to isolate
for wind and electrical forces(wire mesh screen surrounding the apparatus).


2)Have any of you tried this before? If you did, how
did it work?
I had a students do this for a long term project several years ago and
found G w/in a factor of 10.


3) Any suggestions?
He did it in the middle of the night when there were fewer vibrations at
home (done in the garage and video taped so he could go to bed.) the
oscillations had a long period...20 min to 40 min if i remember right.)

It is quite fun!

Ken Fox
Science Department Coordinator
IB Physics Teacher
Smoky Hill High School
Aurora, CO
kfox@mail.ccsd.k12.co.us

This posting is the position of the writer, not that of SUNY-BSC, NAU or the AAPT.