A remote experimental activity focused on measuring the periods of pendulums to corroborate the sphericity of the Earth

Abstract

Flat Earth movement often attempt to imitate the appearance of science by invoking terms characteristic of scientific practice. Addressing this issue, we present an activity utilizing remote pendulums provided by the World Pendulum Alliance (WPA) to investigate the variation of gravitational acceleration at different points on the planet, empirically corroborating that the Earth is approximately spherical in shape. Grounded in the perspective of scientific modeling, the proposal aims to offer high school students a deeper understanding of scientific practice, with particular emphasis on the process of scientific measurement, exploring concepts such as experimental uncertainties, statistical fluctuations, and data analysis.

Keywords
Pendulum; Scientific measurement; Scientific modeling; Gravitational Acceleration