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PURPOSE: To demonstrate a linear coupling resonance and normal modes.
DESCRIPTION: Move the bob straight up or down a few inches and release it quickly. It first starts to oscillate vertically, then its energy transfers entirely into rotational motion, then back to pure translation. This motion then repeats. By lifting the mass directly upward and at the same time rotating it (in either direction) before release, the two normal modes of the Wilberforce pendulum can be produced.
SUGGESTIONS: The paper: Richard E. Berg and Todd S. Marshall, Wilberforce Pendulum and Normal Modes, AJP 59(1), 32-38, Jan (1991), has been used as part of an interactive internet physics course:
Curso Interactive de Fisica en Internet
REFERENCES: Available. (PIRA 3A70.10)
Click your mouse here for a copy of the Original Wilberforce paper in Philosophical Magazine (1894) in Word format. (Note that the pages from Philosophical Magazine are jpg format and can be adjusted as you wish.)
EQUIPMENT: Mounted Wilberforce pendulum.
SETUP TIME: 10 minutes.
