Related papers: A simple, low-cost, data-logging pendulum built fr…
Oscillations and resonance are essential topics in physics that can be explored theoretically and experimentally in the classroom or teaching laboratory environments. However, one of the main challenges concerning the experimental study of…
In this work, the force due to radiation pressure is measured with sub-10 pN sensitivity, corresponding to less than 2 mW of optical power. The apparatus adds homemade reflectors to a commercial Cavendish balance, which consists of a…
A physical pendulum with variable point of suspension (and, as an outcome, variable inertia moment) is experimentally analysed. In particular, the period of the small oscillations as a function of position of the suspension point is…
The recent pandemic has forced us to teach online, which is especially difficult for hand-on courses in robotics, like basic electronics. In this paper, I present a simulator which tries to replicate the same experience students will…
The motion of a simple pendulum in a uniform gravitational field can be described by the solution of a second-order differential equation, nonlinear differential equation. In practice we solve this equation using the small angle…
Wind tunnels are a key source of data collection, but their cost and size can be a significant obstacle to their acquisition and usage, especially for applications such as instrument calibration, instruction, or in-class demonstrations.…
Vortex dynamics are an important topic in fluid dynamics, explaining phenomena like drag and lift generation, jet propulsion, and corner flows. It is also often excluded from introductory or undergraduate fluid dynamics courses on account…
The nearly-incessant free oscillations of the Earth (not the larger, long-lived normal modes seen following intense quakes) were first observed by accident in the record of a tilt-sensitive instrument designed to study surface physics.…
We show how builtin sensors in mobile devices can be used as portable laboratories at the service of teaching experimental sciences, especially physics, in the last years of high school and first years of university. We describe experiments…
The resonance characteristics of a driven damped harmonic oscillator are well known. Unlike harmonic oscillators which are guided by parabolic potentials, a simple pendulum oscillates under sinusoidal potentials. The problem of an undamped…
The steady state motion of a folded pendulum has been studied using frequencies of drive that are mainly below the natural (resonance) frequency of the instrument. Although the free-decay of this mechanical oscillator appears textbook…
In this paper, we demonstrate a low-cost method to measure the speed of light. It uses instruments which are readily available in any undergraduate laboratory in a developing country and some components which are inexpensive. The method is…
It is the purpose of this manuscript to place an illustrative demonstration on the measurement of damped electromagnetic oscillations for a RLC circuit that it is easy to set in any physics laboratory equipped with PASCO technologies and…
We introduce an inexpensive experimental setup for analyzing free-surface water waves: a $1\,\mathrm{m}$-long tabletop flume made from perspex, driven by a variable-frequency piston wavemaker built from Lego. Using mobile-phone video…
This work aims to raise awareness among engineering students from different disciplines on the importance of feedback control. The proposal consists in comparing the performance of different control strategies in a laboratory session,…
For at least fifty years, the inverted pendulum has been the most popular benchmark, among others, for teaching and researches in control theory and robotics. This paper presents the key motivations for the use of that system and explains,…
Mechanical vibrations appear across a diverse range of applications, but nevertheless are unified by a core set of principles and phenomena. In this article, we describe a reconfigurable laboratory kit that is designed to be used as part of…
We study dynamics of the inverted pendulum on the wheel on a soft surface and under a proportional-integral-derivative controller. The behaviour of such pendulum is modelled by a system with a differential inclusion. If the the system has a…
This paper presents an approach to damp out the oscillatory motion of the pendulum-like hanging platform on which a robotic manipulator is mounted. To this end, moving masses were installed on top of the platform. In this paper, asymptotic…
We describe a project-based physics lab, which we proposed to third-year university students. Theses labs are based on new open-source low-cost equipment (Arduino microcontrollers and compatible sensors). Students are given complete…