When Pigs Fly...

One of my favorite labs is the flying pigs to practice calculating properties of objects traveling in circular motion. Since we were 100% virtual this year, I put together some pictures and videos to recreate the experience

I put activity together as a google slide deck but it would be easy to make a handout from these files as well.

When Pigs Fly - Google Slides
When Pigs Fly - Google Slides (copy link)
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The Objective:

Calculate how many seconds it would take for the pig to make 10 complete revolutions

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The Measurements:

Mass
You place your pig on an electronic balance to find its mass. This could be useful to calculate its force of gravity.

​m = 156.41 g

String Length 
You let the pig hang straight down from the ceiling and measure the length of the string to the pig's center of mass

L = 0.88 m

Angled Height
You turn the pig on and wait for it to settle out into a consistent circular motion. As its moving, you carefully measure the vertical distance between the center of mass and the ceiling

h = 0.71 m

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The Calculations:

.Putting all of these measurements together, you get a diagram that looks like the one on the left.

Use these distances to calculate the radius and angle. With this tether angle, it is possible to calculate the horizontal centripetal force from the pig's weight and solve for ten times the period.

Note: it is also possible to do this without the pig's mass since it cancels out in the system of equations :)

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The Reveal:

Watch this video of the pig in action to measure the actual time for 10 revolutions :)

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Click Here for More Labs

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​Click for more Circular Motion resources ​⬇