Abstract
We show that the treatment of pendulum movement, other than the linear approximation,may be an instructive experimentally based introduction to the physics of non-lineareffects. Firstly the natural frequency of a gravitational pendulum is measured as functionof its amplitude. Secondly forced oscillations of a gravitational pendulum are investigatedexperimentally without limiting amplitudes. By this arrangement new phenomena, thebistability and the jump-effect, can be observed. In the case of bistability the drivengravitational pendulum can oscillate in two different stable modes. Either it oscillateswith a small amplitude and approximately in phase with the exciting torque or it oscillateswith a larger amplitude and approximately anti-phase. The jump effect is the spontaneoustransition from one mode of oscillation to the other. Both effects can be demonstrated andexplained.
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Weltner, K., Esperidião, A.S.C. & Miranda, P. Introduction to the Treatment of Non-Linear Effects Using a Gravitational Pendulum. Sci Educ 13, 611–629 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-004-9622-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-004-9622-6