The harmonic driven pendulum as a teaching example of integration of laboratory and computation

Abstract

Abstract We describe an activity developed as laboratory at home during the pandemic period by which it is possible to investigate numerically and experimentally a harmonically driven pendulum with a variable frequency. We realized a prototype using LEGO® bricks and EV3 motor. Because the pendulum undergoes large amplitude oscillations, the motion has been studied by implementing the non-linear numerical model in Python. Students can acquire the experimental data with the software of video analysis and compare them with the numerical model. This approach allows to integrate, at varying levels of complexity, computational and experimental skills into the laboratory practice. The activity also allows a connection with the recent topic of gravitational waves detectors that use pendulums in cascade, as mechanical filters to attenuate the seismic noise.