Related papers: An accurate formula for the period of a simple pen…
A heuristic but pedagogical derivation is given of an explicit formula which accurately reproduces the period of a simple pendulum even for large amplitudes. The formula is compared with others in the literature.
Pendulums have long fascinated humans ever since Galileo theorized that they are isochronic with regards to their swing. While this simplification is useful in the case of small-angle pendulums due to the accuracy of the small-angle…
The standard series expansion for the period of a finite amplitude pendulum as a function of energy (and hence amplitude) provides a lower limit on the period when the series is truncated. An adjustment to the last term in the truncated…
In this paper we deal with the care one must have in adopting approximations in regard with terms he chooses to leave behind in the particular case of the expression valid for the maximum period of a long pendulum oscillating near Earth's…
The period of oscillation of a simple pendulum ($T = 2\pi\sqrt{l/g}$) is a familiar formula to the average first-year physics student. However, deriving this expression from first principles involves solving a non-linear differential…
The small angle approximation often fails to explain experimental data, does not even predict if a plane pendulum's period increases or decreases with increasing amplitude. We make a perturbation ansatz for the Conserved Energy Surfaces of…
We describe a 8085 microprocessor interface developed to make reliable time period measurements. The time period of each oscillation of a simple pendulum was measured using this interface. The variation of the time period with increasing…
The oscillation periods bounded by a simple pendulum and an oscillating rigid rod are illustrated using a multiple pendulum. Oscillation periods between these two limits are obtained. A theoretical approach using the Lagrangian formalism…
The classic simple pendulum is a device which works as a simple harmonic oscillator (S.H.M.) only approximately. The time period remains fixed as long as the amplitude is kept sufficiently small. This limitation makes it unsatisfactory…
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…
We study dynamics of a nonlinear pendulum under a periodic force with small amplitude and slowly decreasing frequency. It is well known that when the frequency of the external force passes through the value of the frequency of the…
We discuss the equation of motion of the driven pendulum and generalize it to arbitrary driving angle. The pendulum will oscillate about a stable angle other than straight down if the drive amplitude and frequency are large enough for a…
We analyze the dynamics of a driven, damped pendulum as used in mechanical clocks. We derive equations for the amplitude and phase of the oscillation, on time scales longer than the pendulum period. The equations are first order ODEs and…
A compound pendulum of simple geometry was built from a lightweight rod to which a pair of masses are clamped, one above and the other below the axis of rotation. By making the position of the upper mass variable, it was found that the…
In this paper we present a study of the non-linear effects of anharmonicity of the potential of the simple pendulum. In a theoretical reminder we highlight that anharmonicity of the potential generates additional harmonics and the…
One of the best ways to measure low-frequency eigenmode oscillations of the Earth is to monitor a simple pendulum responding to tilt. A theoretical basis for the method is given, by investigating a particular, well-known standing wave-the…
We present an analysis of the motion of a simple torsion pendulum and we describe how, with straightforward extensions to the usual basic dynamical model, we succeed in explaining some unexpected features we found in our data, like the…
The Fourier-based analysis customarily employed to analyze the dynamics of a simple pendulum is here revisited to propose an elementary iterative scheme aimed at generating a sequence of analytical approximants of the exact law of motion.…
We develop a simple method to obtain approximate analytical expressions for the period of a particle moving in a given potential. The method is inspired to the Linear Delta Expansion (LDE) and it is applied to a large class of potentials.…
We consider the period of a simple pendulum in the gravitational field of the spherical Earth. Effectively, gravity is enhanced compared with the often used flat Earth approximation, such that the period of the pendulum is shortened. We…