What is a benefit of measuring 10 oscillations instead of a single oscillation?

• A. Reduces human errors
• B. Gives more accurate value of time taken
• C. Gives an average of T
• D. Increases measurement time

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that timing a longer motion reduces the influence of human timing mistakes. When you start and stop a timer for a single oscillation, the small delay or hesitation from the person operating the timer can make a noticeable error in that one measurement. If you time ten oscillations, the same small starting/stopping error becomes much less significant relative to the total time. For example, if the reaction time adds about ±0.2 s, that’s a big relative error for a single 2 s oscillation, but only a small relative error for a total of about 20 s for ten oscillations. Consequently, the measurement is more precise.

Additionally, you can divide the total time by ten to get the average period, which is a more reliable value than timing a single cycle. The idea that measuring more cycles inherently increases measurement time is a side effect, not the main benefit.

So, the best answer highlights that measuring ten oscillations reduces human timing errors, making the result for the period more accurate.