The Pendulum Lab

by Franz-Josef Elmer, University of Basel, Switzerland

Welcome to the Pendulum Lab! This is a virtual laboratory where you can do hands-on experiments at rigid pendula. Together with the material presented in the lecture room, you can learn basic issues like harmonic oscillator and resonance but also advanced topics like parametric resonance, nonlinear dynamics, and chaos. Playing with the pendula in the lab, you only need curiosity and a browser which can run Java applets. However, to understand the mini-lecture, it is helpful to have some basic knowledge of calculus.

If you want to play with the Pendulum Lab offline, you are welcome to download the whole lab:

The Lab

The Lecture Room


Scientific American Sci/Tech Web Awards 2002 MERLOT Classics Award 2011 in Physics
© 1998 Franz-Josef Elmer,  Franz-Josef doht Elmer aht unibas doht ch, last modified Sunday, July 17, 2011.