Related papers: Cycloid Experiment for freshmen physics labs
We analyze the frictionless motion of a point-like particle that slides under gravity on an inverted conical surface. This motion is studied for arbitrary initial conditions and a general relation, valid within 13%, between the periods of…
We remove a small disc from the flat two-dimensional torus and consider a point-like particle that starts moving from the center of the disc with linear trajectory. We provide asymptotic estimates for the moments of the first exit time,…
Sliding friction is usually introduced in high school, but rarely through activities in laboratory. A qualitative introduction to friction is presented by proposing exploration of different kind of materials in order to suggest which…
A simple relation is developed between elastic collisions of freely-moving point particles in one dimension and a corresponding billiard system. For two particles with masses m_1 and m_2 on the half-line x>0 that approach an elastic barrier…
The problem of simulating through quantum walks Dirac fermions in arbitrary curved space-times and coordinates is revisited, taking (1 + 1)D space-times as an example. A new shift or translation operator on the grid is introduced, to take…
In this article we study the one-dimensional dynamics of elastic collisions of particles with positive and negative mass. We show that such systems are equivalent to billiards induced by an inner product of possibly indefinite signature, we…
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the train/track induced loads on the substructure by modelling the wheel, at each instant, as a moving sinusoidal pulse applied in a very short period of time. This assumption has the advantage of being…
In this paper we are interested in the motion of a ball inside a billiard table bounded by a particular smooth curve. This table belongs to a family of billiards which can all be drawn by a common process: the so-called gardener's string…
Teaching modern physics in high school is of increasingly importance as it can offer students a more realistic and updated vision of the world, and can provide an opportunity to understand the most recent scientific discoveries. In this…
Students in introductory calculus-based physics not only have difficulty understanding the fundamental physical concepts, they often have difficulty relating those concepts to the mathematics they have learned in math courses. This produces…
The circular twin paradox and Thomas Precession are presented in a way that makes both accessible to students in introductory relativity courses. Both are discussed by examining what happens during travel around a polygon and then in the…
We study polygonal billiards with one-sided vertical mirror scattered on a square billiard table. We associate trajectories of these kinds of billiards with double rotations and study orbit behavior and questions of complexity.
The dynamics of a hollow cylinder containing granules and rolling down an inclined plane was investigated. A theoretical approach for investigating the behaviour of such a cylinder was proposed. The critical angle of the plane that allows…
Historically, the observation of half-spin particles was one of the most surprising features of quantum mechanics. They are often described as "objects that do not come back to their initial state after one turn but do after two turns".…
We describe four classical undergraduate physics experiments that were done with everyday objects and low-cost sensors: mechanical oscillations, transmittance of light through a slab of matter, beam deformation under load, and thermal…
We examine the stick-slip fluctuating response of a rough massive non-rotating cylinder moving on a rough inclined groove which is submitted to weak external perturbations and which is maintained well below the angle of repose. The…
Billiard systems, broadly speaking, may be regarded as models of mechanical systems in which rigid parts interact through elastic impulsive (collision) forces. When it is desired or necessary to account for linear/angular momentum exchange…
Physics students now have access to interactive molecular dynamics simulations that can model and animate the motions of hundreds of particles, such as noble gas atoms, that attract each other weakly at short distances but repel strongly…
We study the dynamics of three elastic particles in a finite interval where two light particles are separated by a heavy ``piston''. The piston undergoes surprisingly complex motion that is oscillatory at short time scales but seemingly…
The tautochrone on a cycloid curve is usually considered without drag force. In this work, we investigate the motion of a damped cycloidal pendulum under presence of a drag force. Using the Lagrange formulation, and considering linear…