Project Synopsis
An oscillator consisting of an aluminum disk connected to 2 springs, with a point mass on the edge of the aluminum disk to make the oscillator nonlinear, will be driven at a constant angular velocity using a motor. Changing the frequency of the driver will allow one to investigate the progression from predictable motion to chaotic motion. Magnetic damping can be adjusted to change the character of the chaotic motion. The angular position and velocity of the disk will be recorded as a function of time using an encoder. A real-time phase plot will be made by graphing the angular velocity versus the displacement angle of the oscillation and these data will be streamed to disk in a TDMS format file.
One team will work on the data acquisition and control of the system and the other team will work on the analysis of the collected data.
Data Acquisition Team Members 
- Jacob Boaz
- Joseph Redmon
Data Analysis Team Members
- Brendan Evans
- William Poteet
Project Sponsors
- Dr. Doug Harper [WKU Physics and Astronomy]
- Dr. Ivan Novokov [WKU Physics and Astronomy]
SVN Repository Address
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svn://physics.wku.edu/phys318/projects/physics/chaotic-pendulum/trunk/
Required Drivers
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