Computing the gravitational acceleration withing the World Pendulum Alliance: an application of the remote laboratory methodology implemented by UNAD

Abstract: In this paper, we calculate the gravitational acceleration by using simple pendulums within the designated World Pendulum Alliance: a network constituted by fourteen institutions in eight countries, each provided by a pendulum that can be accessed remotely via the Internet. As a pedagogical option for remote laboratory experiences, we show how to access them and measure the pendulum's period for $N$ oscillations. We discuss the role of the repetitions and samples to minimize the experimental uncertainty, and by using the averaged value of the period, we compute the gravitational acceleration locally. Also, we present the corrections due to the moment of inertia of the system. Finally, by taking into account the geographical location of each pendulum, we report gravity's dependence on latitude, longitude, and altitude by discussing the implications on the Earth's shape. We hope this tool will be helpful for introductory and university physics courses due to its remote access features and its relation to fundamental concepts.