A strange harmonic oscillator
Two equal masses are tied up by means of a light rigid rod and may move
without friction along two perpendicular rails in a horizontal table.
The
unit length has be chosen equal to the rod length and the unit mass equal
to the total mass of the system.
Activities
-
Choose the right generalized coordinate to write the conservation law
of the mechanical energy. Which kind of motion will describe each
particle?
-
Check your guess by enabling Graph.
-
Use your analytical calculation to show that each mass motion is
harmonic but rather unusual, since the oscillation period depends on
the energy in a precise way you have to find.
-
Use the simulation to check (qualitatively and quantitatively) the
last result.
This is an English translation of the Basque original for a course
on mechanics, oscillations and waves.
It requires Java
1.5 or newer and was created by Juan
M. Aguirregabiria with Easy
Java Simulations (Ejs) by Francisco
Esquembre. I thank Wolfgang Christian and Francisco Esquembre for
their help.