Simple Harmonic (and non-harmonic) Motion

Selection of mounted tuning forks and rubber hammer.

How it works:

Each tuning fork is mounted on a wooden sound box to amplify the sound (they're very difficult to hear without the box). A microphone/preamp/scope setup may be used to visually...

Single air track glider, with and without variable frequency driver, variable damping, and oscilloscope position vs. time display.

What It Shows

With one end of the car attached via a spring to the end of the track and the other end of the car coupled (via...

What it shows:

Fifteen uncoupled simple pendulums of monotonically increasing lengths dance together to produce visual traveling waves, standing waves, beating, and random motion. One might call this kinetic art and the choreography of the dance of the...

Oscillation of mass on wire in torsional mode of oscillation.

What It Shows

The frequency of oscillation of a torsional pendulum is proportional to the square root of the torsional constant and inversely proportional to the square root of the rotational...

Half wood and half metal physical pendulum with suspension points at both ends.

What it shows:

The period of a physical pendulum is measured and compared to theory:

A rigid rod executes simple harmonic motion about an adjustable pivot point.

What It Shows

The period of a physical pendulum is measured and compared to theory. The pivot point, and thus the period, is adjustable along the length of the pendulum making it...

Simultaneous shadow projection of circular motion and bouncing weight on spring.

Video of the demo in action https://youtu.be/ZlleypTKfGY

What It Shows

One of the simplest of periodic motions is uniform circular motion. By shadow projecting both uniform...

Relation between circular motion and linear displacement on overhead projector.

What It Shows

Uniform circular motion can be shown to be the superposition of simple harmonic motions in two mutually perpendicular directions. This apparatus gives the...

A physical pendulum with two adjustable knife edges for an accurate determination of "g".

What It Shows

An important application of the pendulum is the determination of the value of the acceleration due to gravity. By adding a second knife-edge pivot and...