Amichai Levy

The Real (Nonlinear) Pendulum Abstract:

This article will discuss the behavior of the nonlinear pendulum system through the mathematical formalism of Newtonian Mechanics and experimentation. Also, we will determine the affect of fluid friction on the motion of the pendulum by measuring the dampening of the amplitude of our experimental system at high amplitudes. After getting an estimate for the affect of fluid friction on the pendulum, we relate 0 to the period of oscillation and compare this result with the analytic result for the period of a nonlinear pendulum.

Introduction:

Figure 1. Some parameters of the ideal pendulum. The pendulum oscillating repeatedly across a fixed curved trajectory is a common image in day to day life and an intuitive physical system which is often used as a symbol for man's mortality and the passage of time: Looking upward, I surveyed the ceiling of my prison. It was some thirty or forty feet overhead, and constructed much as the side walls. In one of its panels a very singular figure riveted my whole attention. It was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum such as we see on antique clocks. E. A Poe, The Pit and the Pendulum The motion of the pendulum is characterized by only one degree of freedom, yet is remarkably 1

complex to fully describe and model. In an ideal pendulum a rod which connects a massive bob to a pivot is assumed to be completely rigid and massless. Also, the pendulum oscillates over its one degree of freedom without encountering any friction at the pivot point or the air. Some of these parameters are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 2. Force diagram used to derive the motion of the pendulum. The equation of motion for the ideal pendulum is easy to derive from Newton's second law and a force diagram which represents the force of gravity acting on the bob like the one found in Figure 2: F =mg sin s=l ds d v= =l dt dt 2 d s d2 a= 2 =l 2 dt dt d2 g + sin =0 (1) 2 l dt where s is the arc length traveled by the pendulum and l is the length of rod. Equation 1 is a nonlinear differential equation and a paradigmatic case of a physical law which is easy to formulate but whose mathematical solution is complex. Elementary physics courses usually simplify this equation by using the small angle approximation: 2

sin = Yielding: g + =0 (2) l Equation 2 is the equation for the simple harmonic oscillator, who's solution is: =Asin ( t+) Where: g = l the angular frequency of the system. The period of motion is given by: 2 T=

Theory:
The divergence of the small angle approximation

| x - sin(x) | / sin(x)
7 6
| x - sin(x) | / sin(x)

5 4 3 2 1 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180

x (in degrees)

Figure 3. The divergence of the small angle approximation.

Small Angle Approximation - Percent Error

25 20 15 10 5 0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Angle (in degrees)

Error (%)

Figure 4. The percent error associated with the small angle approximation. Figures 3 and 4 show how the small angle approximation diverges from the sin of an angle as that angle grows. However, the percent error for oscillations of 10o is only .509%, which is often a sufficiently close approximation. d2 g + sin =0 , can be Increasingly precise approximate solutions to the equation of motion 2 l dt achieved by replacing sin with additional terms in its Taylor expansion: 3 5 7 sin = + +... 3 ! 5 ! 7! This method for approximating the solution to equation 1, is known as the perturbation method for solving nonlinear differential equations. An exact analytical solution to the nonlinear pendulum, derived in source [1], can be expressed in terms of Jacobi elliptical functions: ( t)=arcsin sin 0 sn K sin 2 0 t ; sin 2 0 2 2 2

[( )

]}

Where: sn is one of the Jacobi elliptical functions and K is the complete elliptical integral of the first kind: 1 dz K (m)= 2 2 0 (1z )(1mz ) And 0 is the angle of maximum amplitude. Approximating the period of the pendulum An exact expression for the period of the nonlinear pendulum can be found by inverting the equation of motion: dt 1 l 1 = d 2 g cos cos 0

And integrating over theta: 1 l d T =2 g cos cos 0 2 Using the power series the elliptic function of the first kind, we arrive at a power series representation of the period who's first terms are: l 1 11 4 173 6 22931 T =2 1+ 2 + 0 + 0+ 8 +... (3) 0 g 16 3072 737280 1321205760 0
0 0

Friction acting on the pendulum In simple experimental embodiments of the pendulum system, the motion of the pendulum is affected by friction at the pivot point and fluid friction acting on the bob. The force of fluid friction acting on the pendulum to resist the motion of the bob, is related to velocity of the bob. The way in which fluid friction and velocity are related is affected by a parameter called Reynold's number which is the ratio of a moving object's inertial force to its viscous force. Reynold's number is defined as: vL Re= Where v is the mean velocity of the object relative to the fluid, L is the characteristic linear dimension and is the kinematic viscosity. At 200 C, the kinematic viscosity of air is approximately 15.11 x 10-6 m2/s Which guarantees a fairly large Reynold's number and hence a drag force which is proportional to the velocity of the object squared. Specifically: 1 2 F D = v C D A (4) 2 where is the mass density of the fluid, v is the velocity of the object relative to the fluid, A is the reference area and CD is the drag coefficient, a dimensionless constant related to the object's geometry. Friction acting on a pendulum adds a dampening term to the equation of motion which for the nonlinear pendulum can be written as: g = sin 2 (5) l Where alpha is a dampening coefficient. Assuming the approximation: = 2 g h where h is the height of the pendulum bob above its rest position measured from the center of mass of the bob. Plugging in to equation 5 we derive: g = sin 2 g h (6) l For a constant dampening force we know: t ( t)damped =e (t )undamped In our case however, beta is variable and depends on the amplitude or height of the bob therefore: (h )t (t)damped =e (t)undamped For a single oscillation at height h, we can estimate the damping coefficient: ln start (7) end = T Where T is the period of oscillation, and h is taken to be the average of the bob height at both ends of the oscillation. Because of equation 6, we expect the value of beta to be approximately proportional to

( )

h.

Experimental Setup:
The pendulum setup in this experiment was designed so that the bob would be significantly heavier than the wire connecting the bob to the pivot making the mass of the rod negligible. Also, we used a rod (thread) which was as long as possible so that accurate measurements of height and theta could be taken. At rest ( =0 ) the bob was 4.6 + .1 cm above the ground. Taking other height measurements at some distance x from the point of lowest potential energy and using Euclidean geometry, we calculate our rod length was found to be 297.5 + 1 cm. Measurements for period and amplitude were taken by filming the bob in front of a timer and ruler at the point in its oscillation where it reached its maximum amplitude. A frame showing the bob at maximum amplitude is shown in Figure 5:

Figure 5. A frame from the footage used to calculate the amplitude and period of oscillation. A frame by frame analysis of this video footage allows gives a time stamp to every max amplitude achieved. Incidentally, the max amplitude frames are easy to recognize, as they are the only frames in the whole video in which the bob doesn't come out blurry. These frames are used to calculate the period of each oscillation and the height of the bob at max amplitude as measured by the meter stick allows us 6

to easily calculate the angle of the pendulum from a known height h as visualized in Figure 6:

h Figure 6. The relationship between h and the angle of the pendulum. It's clear to see that: h=ll cos lh =cos1 l

( )

Data:
Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear. Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage In studying the system of our experiment we first attempt to determine the affect of fluid friction on the motion of the pendulum by measuring the dampening of the amplitude at high amplitudes. After getting an estimate for the affect of fluid friction on the pendulum, we relate 0 to the period of oscillation and compare this result with the analytic result for the period of a nonlinear pendulum. The dampening effect of friction on the pendulum Using equation 7 for calculating the dampening coefficient of a single oscillation, we find the dampening coefficient for twenty two oscillations starting at a bob height of 149.9 + .1 cm, where =60.25 . This data is shown in Figure 7:

0.007 0.006
Damping Coefficient

R = 0.39

0.005 0.004 0.003 0.002 0.001 0.000 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160
Pendulum Height (cm)

Figure 7. Pendulum height vs. the dampening coefficient.

The slope of the trend line shown in figure 7 is found to be 3.284x10-5. This value is our experimentally determined approximation for 2 g , therefore we find: 1.676106 . As described earlier, this dampening is manifest as a decrease in the angle of oscillation, 0 with each successive oscillation. The change in the angle of oscillation with each successive oscillation for large values of 0 is shown in figure 8.
180 160 140
Angle in Degrees

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Oscillation Count

Figure 8. The change in the angle of oscillation with each successive oscillation.

The decrease in 0 is not strictly linear since the dampening coefficient decreases as the height of the bob decreases.
3.9 3.8 3.7 3.6
Period (s)

3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 2 1 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49

Oscillation Count

Figure 9. The change in the period of oscillation with each successive oscillation for high amplitudes. Figure 9 shows how the period varied over successive oscillations at large amplitudes. The error in this measurement is approximately + .05s. Figure 10 relates the data in figure 9 with the data in figure 8 showing how the period of oscillation decreased in relation to the decrease in 0 . The error in the measurement is represented by the size of the data points.

3.9 3.8
Period of Oscillation (sec)

3.7 3.6 3.5 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Angle in Degrees

Figure 9. Angle of oscillation vs. the period of oscillation. Figure 10 shows a graph for the exact formula relating period of oscillation to theta, which is given by equation 3.

3.8 3.75
Period of Oscillation (sec)

3.7 3.65 3.6 3.55 3.5 3.45 3.4 3.35 3.3 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

Angle in Degrees

Figure 10. The expected relationship between max angle and period as derived from the analytic solution to the nonlinear pendulum (equation 3).

Conclusions:
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Period of the nonlinear pendulum The errors associated with measuring the height of the pendulum and the exact period of oscillation from the video are responsible for the noise and variation in our data. Nevertheless, figure 9 clearly captures some of the nonlinear behavior of a pendulum at large angles and the relationship between the period of a pendulum and its angle of oscillation. l The expected period of oscillation for a linear pendulum a constant, 2 . For our system g parameters, we would expect a period of 3.462 s for a linear pendulum which is a value that our pendulum approached at lower angles. The largest period of oscillation that we measured for amplitudes of 600 >>50 0 was 3.8 seconds. This is somewhat longer than the expected value of 3.65 seconds. This measurement in the nonlinear pendulum differs from the expected value of the linear pendulum by: 3.83.5 1008.57 % 3.5 Friction acting on and dampening the motion of the pendulum may be responsible for this discrepancy.

Dampening of the nonlinear pendulum In measuring the dampening of our pendulum at large amplitudes, we were able to calculate a coefficient of dampening which was dependent on the velocity of the pendulum squared and therefore approximately proportional to the height of the pendulum. The value that we calculated for alpha: 1.676106 , is affected by the many factors in our system including the the density (temperature) of the air in the room, the drag coefficient and the area of the bob. Through this analysis we have seen how the pendulum behaves in a way that is both periodic and intuitive yet elusive and complex. The system with its one degree of freedom can be solved and well approximated with the small angle approximation but is surprisingly difficult to solve exactly without making that approximation. The real trouble with this world of ours is not that it is an unreasonable world, nor even that it is a reasonable one. The commonest kind of trouble is that it is nearly reasonable, but not quite. Life is not an illogicality; yet it is a trap for logicians. It looks just a little more mathematical and regular than it is; its exactitude is obvious, but its inexactitude is hidden; its wildness lies in wait. G. K. Chesterton, The Paradoxes of Christianity References: [1] A. Belendez , C. Pascual, D.I. Mendez, T. Belendez and C. Neipp, Exact solution for the nonlinear pendulum. Revista Brasileira de Ensino de Fsica, v. 29, n. 4, p. 645-648, (2007) Diagrams are found on http://commons.wikimedia.org and are available to use with attribution under a Creative Commons license.

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