Visualizing the motion of a damped torsional oscillator using an optical lever

Abstract

Abstract This study aims to visualize the motion of an underdamped torsional oscillator using an optical lever. This involves employing an optical setup to magnify and measure the angular displacement of the torsional oscillator as it undergoes oscillations and damps over time. By analysing a video recording of an image of a filament formed by a concave mirror attached to the damped torsional oscillator, we observed an exponential decay in the time-averaged amplitude.