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An entertaining resonance experiment with just two spring scales

Physics Education 2024-02-14 v1

Abstract

Resonance is a topic included in most introductory physics courses. Any mechanical system experiences resonance if it is driven by a periodic force with a frequency that matches its natural frequency. There are plenty of simple demonstrations of the resonance phenomena of mechanical systems which can be set up using readily available items . This work presents a very simple approach to demonstrate the phenomena using just two spring scales. The experiment presented here performs a "frequency sweep" and is also very entertaining to watch.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2402.07904,
  title  = {An entertaining resonance experiment with just two spring scales},
  author = {Yajun Wei},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.07904},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

5 pages, 3 figures, Accepted by The Physics Teacher

R2 v1 2026-06-28T14:46:27.448Z