Experiment 6: Harmonic Oscillator

Part Part Part Part II II II II. . . . Physical Physical Physical Physical Pendulum Pendulum Pendulum Pendulum



Jacob Nisnevich
May 19, 2014
Monday 8 AM
TA: Priscilla Zhao
Lab Partner: William Switzer



6 66 6. .. .1 11 1 Introduction Introduction Introduction Introduction
For the sixth experiment of the quarter, a physical pendulum was put under various
conditions with various levels of driving and damping in order to test various measurements
for the Q-factor of the harmonic oscillator. In this particular experiment, initially an un-
driven pendulum was tested under under-damped, over-damped, and critically damped
conditions. Next, the pendulum was driven by a motor in order to determine the resonance
frequency of the physical pendulum. Additionally, Lissajous plots were given for frequencies
below and above the resonance.
In order to determine the frequency of the physical pendulum from the
measurements of pendulum angle over time, one must simply determine the change in time
in between each peak amplitude. Then, given this period of oscillation, one can simply take
the reciprocal to calculate the frequency of oscillation.
For the un-driven portion of the experiment, we were assigned the task of
determining the magnitude magnet separation required to reach the point of critical
damping. In order to compute this distance of separation, various distances were tested
until the first point at which the angular velocity does not change its sign. Meaning the
slope of the angle of the pendulum must not change.
The Lissajous plot is an invaluable tool in finding the resonance frequency. In a plot
with voltage on the x-axis and angle on the y-axis, when the elliptical graph leans to the
right the frequency is below resonance, when it leans to the left the frequency is above, and
when the graph is roughly circular, the frequency is approximately at resonance. Obviously,
this took a great deal of trials to achieve resonance frequency.
In this experiment, three different methods are used to determine the quality factor,
or the Q-factor of the situation. The first method used is similar to the one in experiment
five, in which the damping time is computed from the experimental data along with the
angular frequency at resonance and used to determine Q. The second method uses the
experimental frequencies of oscillation and resonance. Finally, the third method to compute
the quality factor is to use the Lorentzian shaped graph of the angular frequency and use
equation 9.16.
6 66 6.2 .2 .2 .2 Experimental Experimental Experimental Experimental Setup Setup Setup Setup
The setup of the experiment was fairly simple, with a physical pendulum hanging
from a rotation sensor in the lab setup. For certain specific measurements within the
experiment, a wave driver, which was attached to the rotation sensor via a string and a
spring was used to move the pendulum. Additionally, for the un-driven measurements with
damping, a pair of magnets with varying separation were used for damping the oscillation
of the physical pendulum. The experimental setup in its entirety can be shown below.


6 66 6.3 .3 .3 .3 Results and Data Analysis Results and Data Analysis Results and Data Analysis Results and Data Analysis
For the un-driven portion of the experiment, we gathered data for three important
regimes of damping, these being under-damped, over-damped, and critically damped. The
plots of these regimes can be seen below in Figures 6.2, 6.3, and 6.4 respectively.
Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6.1. Setup of Experiment .1. Setup of Experiment .1. Setup of Experiment .1. Setup of Experiment 6 66 6: :: : The diagram above shows the situation of Experiment 5, in which a
physical pendulum hangs from a rotation sensor attached to a wave driver via a spring. Additionally,
damping magnets are used to dampen the oscillation for certain measurements




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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .2 22 2. . . . Under Under Under Under- -- -Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation: :: : The diagram above shows the state of the physical
pendulums oscillations with minimal damping. The decline in amplitude is minimal in this particular
graph of the oscillations of the pendulum.
Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .3 33 3. . . . Over Over Over Over- -- -Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation: :: : The diagram above shows the plot of angular displacement
vs time at the point where it is over-damped, meaning it is past the point where angular velocity does not
change sign.


After several attempts to reach the critical point of damping, at which the angular
velocity just barely does not change sign, I found that the optimal separation for the
damping magnets to reach the critical damping regime was 0.12 0.005 m, with the
primary source of uncertainty coming from the measurement of the separation with the
meter stick.
With the undamped and un-driven measurement of pendulum angle over time, we
can compute the frequency of the pendulums oscillations by simply looking at the Figure
6.2 above and computing the difference in the peaks of the various oscillations. After taking
the mean of several measures of frequency we can come up with the following measure for
, the angular frequency: 0.7280 0.0119 Hz, with the error term coming from the formula
for uncertainty for mean values (

).
We then put the un-driven pendulum under the condition of damping with a 50 mm
separation between the magnets. A plot of angular displacement vs. time for the un-driven
pendulum with this gap setting can be seen below in Figure 6.5. The frequency measured
here is as follows, with the uncertainty again coming from the formula for uncertainty for
the mean of multiple experimental values: 0.7213 0.0049 Hz.
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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .4 44 4. . . . Critically Critically Critically Critically Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation Damped Regime of Oscillation: :: : The diagram shows the plot of angular displacement vs
time at the point where it is critically damped, meaning that the angular velocity does not change sign at
any point in the oscillations. This separation is noted as being 0.12 m.


Given the damped angular frequency and the angular frequency of oscillation, we can
compute the damping time using equation 9.5 from the lab manual. This computation is
shown below:

= 10.15 0.87 s.
The uncertainty here comes from the propagation of uncertainties formula.
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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .5 55 5. . . . Damped Damped Damped Damped Oscillation Oscillation Oscillation Oscillation with a Gap of 50 mm with a Gap of 50 mm with a Gap of 50 mm with a Gap of 50 mm: :: : The diagram above shows the oscillations of the
physical pendulum as it was damped with the magnets separated by a distance of 0.50 m.
At this point in the experiment, we connecting the wave driver to the rotation sensor
and created a driven oscillation from the pendulum. We then outputted the resultant
voltage and angular displacement to a graph to create Lissajous figures, from which we can
derive the resonance frequency of the pendulum. The Lissajous figures are either over or
below the resonance frequency when they lean to one side, but are nearly symmetrical at
the point of resonance. In the three figures below, we can see the results of a driven
pendulum below, above, and at resonance frequency in Figures 6.6, 6.7, and 6.8. The
frequencies determined here are 0.715 Hz (below), 0.780 Hz (above), and 0.723 Hz (at
resonance).


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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .6 66 6. . . . Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure below below below below Resonance Resonance Resonance Resonance: :: : The diagram above shows the outputted Lissajous figure
below the resonance frequency. The frequency measured here is at 0.715 Hz as driven by the wave driver
at the top of the setup.



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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .7 77 7. . . . Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure above above above above Resonance Resonance Resonance Resonance: :: : The diagram above shows the outputted Lissajous figure
above the resonance frequency.

From the Lissajous figures, we can compute the resonance frequency to be at 0.724
0.0005 Hz, with the error term simply from possible slight offset due to the limitations of
the wave drivers digits. We can then combine this result with the damping time to achieve
a result for the Q-factor of the pendulum. This is done in the mathematical computations
below:

1
2

5.669 0.315
The term for uncertainty comes from the following equation for the uncertainty of Q, which
comes from the standard propagation of uncertainty formula (evaluated at the best for each
variable):

1
2

+
1
2

We also can compute the value of Q using the equation 9.15 in the lab manual as
follows, with the uncertainty again coming from the formula for the propagation for
uncertainty, with partial derivative calculations done separately.

1
1 +
1
2

1 +
1
2

1 +
1
2

1
2

2

5.989 0.124
Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .8 88 8. . . . Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure Lissajous Figure at at at at Resonance Resonance Resonance Resonance: :: : The diagram above shows the outputted Lissajous figure above
the resonance frequency. The frequency here is 0.723 Hz.
We can then create a plot of the amplitude response vs. drive frequency by taking 10
different drive frequencies, including the resonance frequency to show the resonance curve of
the physical pendulum. This graph is shown below in Figure 6.9.


Using the plot given above in Figure 6.9, we can compute values for and the
value of Q using equation 9.16 in the lab manual. First, is simply the width at 1/2
times the maximum amplitude, which can be computed as 0.133 0.0001 Hz, with the
uncertainty coming simply from possible error in measurement. We can then compute the
value of Q as follows:

5.474 0.372
The uncertainty term here comes from the propagation of uncertainty formula, which reads
as follows:

We can now compare your three methods of measuring Q, as is done in Table 6.1
below. As we have no theoretical figure it is impossible to say which experimental
computation is the closest to being accurate. However, it does appear that the error term
for the final calculation is the largest, suggesting that this calculation is the least
appropriate in terms of precision.
0
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0.12
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0.16
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0.695 0.7 0.705 0.71 0.715 0.72 0.725 0.73 0.735 0.74 0.745 0.75
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Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6 Figure 6. .. .9 99 9. . . . Plot of Various Drive Frequencies with Amplitudes Plot of Various Drive Frequencies with Amplitudes Plot of Various Drive Frequencies with Amplitudes Plot of Various Drive Frequencies with Amplitudes: :: : The diagram above shows the resulting
amplitudes from various drive frequencies, with peak of the curve located at the resonance frequency



Method of Computing Q Method of Computing Q Method of Computing Q Method of Computing Q Value of Q Value of Q Value of Q Value of Q

1
2

5.669 0.315



1
2

2

5.989 0.124

5.474 0.372

6 66 6.4 .4 .4 .4 Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion Conclusion
The overall experiment, which compares three different methods for computing the
value of the quality factor of the pendulum, can be considered fairly successful, as none of
the values of Q are absurdly far from any other values. This indicates a certain degree of
precision, but we cannot know for sure the degree of accuracy, without having a
theoretically correct value not based on experimental data.
Possible sources of systematic uncertainty could have come from air resistance as the
pendulum moved through its oscillations. Additionally there may have been issues with the
calibration of the wave driver related to the experimental frequency driven compared to the
theoretical applied frequency.