As part of an upper‐level laboratory course, the oscillations of one and two mass systems on an airtrack were measured in real time. Both linear oscillations with spring forces and nonlinear oscillations with magnetic forces were analyzed with fast Fourier transforms and compared to theoretical predictions. The results for the coupled linear oscillator agree with the theoretical values to within 0.5%. The coupled nonlinear oscillator results were modeled numerically.
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© 1996 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1996
American Association of Physics Teachers
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