We describe the use of Apple’s iPod touch/iPhone, acting as the pendulum
bob, as a means of measuring pendulum period, making use of the device’s
three-axis digital accelerometer and the freely available SPARKvue app
from PASCO scientific. The method can be readily incorporated into an
introductory physics laboratory experiment. Moreover, the principles
described may be carried out with any number of smartphone devices
containing an integrated accelerometer and paired with an appropriate
application for collecting and sending accelerometer data as a
comma-separated value file