Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1981
Department 1
Physics
Abstract
A classroom demonstration, a variation of the simple swinging pendulum, is described. In our "portulum," a ball, driven by short blasts of air, rolls along a curved tube. The design of this device, its construction, and its usefulness to the teaching of physics are discussed. It is also shown that the oscillations of the rolling ball have the same mathematical form as the oscillations of the ball swinging along the same path, but with a lower frequency.
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1119/1.12458
Recommended Citation
Marschall, Laurence A. "Driven 'Portulum': A Rolling Ball as a Simple Oscillating System." American Journal of Physics (1981) 49(6):557-561.
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version available from the publisher at: http://ajp.aapt.org/resource/1/ajpias/v49/i6/p557_s1?isAuthorized=no