A 3D-Printed Ballistic Pendulum Retrofit for the Rotary Motion Sensor
This page contains supplementary material for the paper “A 3D-Printed Ballistic Pendulum Retrofit for the Rotary Motion Sensor”, written by Zachary Hannan and Michael Sullivan for The Physics Teacher. This paper has been accepted for publication as of Spring 2026.
- Derivations of Equations 1-7 (.pdf)
- Research Notes (.pdf)
- Data Analysis Excel Files (.zip)
- 3D Print Instructions (.zip)
- 3D Print Files – .stl and .step (.zip)
- Video 1: projectile shot to measure muzzle velocity (.mov)
- Video 2: ballistic pendulum shot (.mov)
- Video 3: ballistic pendulum as a rotational Atwood machine (.mov)
I’m also going to upload several of the derivations of equations as videos on my YouTube channel @ZaksLab in the coming months:
- Calculating muzzle speed from a horizontal projectile launch.
- Calculating muzzle speed from a tilted projectile launch, and reduction to horizontal launch formula.
- Solving the ballistic pendulum using angular momentum [TBA]
- Finding moment of inertia from the period of oscillation for a physical pendulum [TBA]
- Finding moment of inertia using a rotational Atwood machine [TBA]