Related papers: Analysis on the Foucault pendulum by De Alembert P…
The study of the motion of a rigid body on a plane (RBP motion) is usually one of the most challenging topics that students face in introductory physics courses. In this paper, we discuss a couple of problems which are typically used in…
The Fermat principle is advocated to be a convenient tool to analyze the light propagation in a curved space time. It is shown that in the weak deflection regime the light ray trajectories can be systematically described by applying the…
This paper investigates the potential for stabilizing an inverted pendulum without electric devices, using gravitational potential energy. We propose a wheeled mechanism on a slope, specifically, a wheeled double pendulum, whose second…
The quantum mechanical equivalent of parametric resonance is studied. A simple model of a periodically kicked harmonic oscillator is introduced which can be solved exactly. Classically stable and unstable regions in parameter space are…
When the frequencies of the elastic and pendular oscillations of an elastic pendulum or swinging spring are in the ratio two-to-one, there is a regular exchange of energy between the two modes of oscillation. We refer to this phenomenon as…
In this paper we consider a generalized classical mechanics with fractional derivatives. The generalization is based on the time-clock randomization of momenta and coordinates taken from the conventional phase space. The fractional…
This paper formulates a variational approach for treating observational uncertainty and/or computational model errors as stochastic transport in dynamical systems governed by action principles under nonholonomic constraints. For this…
We have designed, built and operated a physical pendulum which allows one to demonstrate experimentally the behaviour of the pendulum under any equation of motion for such a device for any initial conditions. All parameters in the equation…
Experiments on the motion of a particle on an inclined rough plane have yielded some surprising results. For example, it was found that the frictional force acting on the ball is viscous, {\it i.e.} proportional to the velocity rather than…
We analyse a random motion of a particle on a fractal curve, using Langevin approach. This involves defining a new velocity in terms of mass of the fractal curve, as defined in recent work. The geometry of the fractal curve, hence plays an…
In a recent papers, Turner and Turner (2010 {\em Am. J. Phys.} {\bf 78} 905-7) and Jensen (2011 {\em Eur. J. Phys.} {\bf 32} 389-397) analysed the motion of asymmetric rolling rigid bodies on a horizontal plane. These papers addressed the…
Projectile motion is a constant theme in introductory-physics courses. It is often used to illustrate the application of differential and integral calculus. While most of the problems used for this purpose, such as maximizing the range, are…
We introduce fractional Brownian motion processes (fBm) as an alternative model for the turbulent index of refraction. These processes allow to reconstruct most of the refractive index properties, but they are not differentiable. We…
We develop the Floquet-Magnus expansion for a classical equation of motion under a periodic drive that is applicable to both isolated and open systems. For classical systems, known approaches based on the Floquet theorem fail due to the…
As a profound example of spontaneous motion, we analyze the motion of a camphor particle on a water surface. The motion is modeled as an initial-boundary value problem for a coupled nonlinear system of a diffusion equation and an ordinary…
In this paper, we propose a nonlinear control strategy for swinging up a pendulum to its upright equilibrium position by shaping its swinging energy along with regulating the cart to a desired location. While the base of a usual cart-pole…
Within the framework of a Boltzmann-Lorentz equation, we analyze the dynamics of a granular rotor immersed in a bath of thermalized particles in the presence of a frictional torque on the axis. In numerical simulations of the equation, we…
The humble pendulum is often invoked as the archetype of a simple, gravity driven, oscillator. Under ideal circumstances, the oscillation frequency of the pendulum is independent of its mass and swing amplitude. However, in most real-world…
In this paper we study the asymptotic behaviour of weighted random sums when the sum process converges stably in law to a Brownian motion and the weight process has continuous trajectories, more regular than that of a Brownian motion. We…
We consider a point mass on a horizontal plane. The motion of the plane is given. The plane moves periodically such that all its points have congruent closed trajectories. There is the Coulomb friction between the point mass and the plane.…