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Henry Cavendish

10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810

Creator of: Gravitation constant experiment

Cavendish experiment Torsion pendulum example

 

Cavendish experiment

The experiment uses a torsion pendulum. On the suspended wire there are two identical masses \(m\). At a distance \(r\) from them there are two equal static masses \(M\), which are designed to attract masses to each other. Attraction twists the pendulum by the \(\Theta\) angle, creating a moment of force \(\bar{M}\) proportional to the angle of the arm swing. The momentum will by equalt to:

$$\bar{M} = -\kappa \theta $$

On the other hand, the moment of causing force can be determined by the arm length and the pulling force by:

$$\bar{M} = F \frac{L}{2}$$

Because we have two arms, the moment of force will be twice as large.

$$\bar{M} = FL$$

This two momentums are the same, therefore:

$$\kappa \theta = FL $$

Knowing Newtons gravitional force wy can modify ouer equation to:

\begin{equation} \label{eq:C1} \kappa \theta = G\frac{mM}{r^{2}}L\end{equation}

we can determine the moment of the wire's direction from the equation:

$$T = 2\pi \sqrt{\frac{I}{\kappa}}$$

The moment of inertia of the smaller balls is:

$$I = \frac{mL^{2}}{2} $$

Puting this to above equation \(T\) nad extracting \(\kappa\) we get:

$$\kappa = \frac{2\pi^{2}mL^{2}}{T^{2}} $$

Seting this to equation \eqref{eq:C1}, and extracting \(G\), will give us

\begin{equation} \label{eq:C2} G = \frac{2\pi^{2}r^{2}L}{MT^{2}} \theta \end{equation}


 

Torsion pendulum example

Data collected from experiment:

$$T = 498 s$$

$$\Theta = 0.31^{\circ} \sim 0.0054 rad$$

$$M = 1500 g = 1.5 kg$$

$$m = 38.3 g$$

$$r = 46.5 mm = 0.0465 m$$

$$L = 50 mm = 0.05 m$$

Puting this data to equation \eqref{eq:C2}, will give the result of:

$$G = 3.0976 \cdot 10^{-11} \frac{m^{3}}{kg s^{2}}$$

Current value calculated in 2014 is:

$$G = 6.67408(31) \cdot 10^{-11} \frac{m^{3}}{kg s^{2}}$$

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