This document guides students through two experiments developed for an intermediate Classical Mechanics course.

1. Undamped pendulum (employs a small weight attached to a long string)-  developed to address student difficulties with simple harmonic motion. In assessing student learning at Bridgewater College and College of Wooster, we found that students struggled to use energy conservation reasoning appropriately, and made errors in interpreting the role of an initial push on the subsequent motion of a pendulum. The experiment targets these learning obstacles. The experiment is simple to set up and does not require a lab room - just a surface suitable for mounting a simple pendulum.

2. Damped pendulum - requires setting up a pendulum that leaks a sand trail. Requires a lab room or other area with flat tables.

The materials required are small weights, a horizontal bar mounted above a desk, sand or coarse cornmeal, rulers, stopwatches, protractors, and common household materials (tape, paper, string).