College of Liberal Arts & Sciences
3B10.75 - Pendulum Waves
Push the Aluminum angle starter bar against the pendulum bobs so that they are all displaced by the same amount. Quickly remove the bar and carefully watch the wave pass through various standing and traveling wave patterns before coming back to their initial mode in which they are all in phase.
The smaller unit made from fiber board and machine nuts as the pendulums is for use on the overhead projector.
- Xiangdong Feng, Changhong Lu, Jurgen Schulte, Zengxu Shan, Gentong Liu, "Pendulum Waves: A Model of Thomae's Function", AJP, Vol. 91, #12, Dec. 2023, p. 964.
- James A. Flaten, Kevin A. Parendo, "Pendulum Waves: A Lesson in Aliasing", AJP, Vol. 69, # 7, July 2001, p. 778.
- Richard Berg, "Pendulum Waves: A Demonstration of Wave Motion Using Pendula", AJP, Vol. 59, # 2, February 1991, p. 186.
- Bobby Mercer, "Swinging Wave Machine", Junk Drawer Physics, p. 63.
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