Talk:Wilberforce pendulum

Started
Hi, I started this page because I couldn't find it, but perhaps it has a different name. Also, I'm not sure if "transfer of rotation" is very precise, and someone might want to look into that. Manicwhale (talk) 04:53, 24 November 2007 (UTC)
 * I expanded the article, but I liked your clear and concise initial description. Good work. -- Chetvorno TALK 16:59, 5 May 2008 (UTC)

Need image
This page desperately needs a photo or diagram. I tried to find a noncopyrighted one on the web and failed utterly. Can someone help? -- Chetvorno TALK 06:11, 14 March 2009 (UTC)


 * Added a diagram. --Petteri Aimonen (talk) 14:01, 16 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Great diagram, illustrates the motion well. -- Chetvorno TALK 09:00, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * I found a photo, which nicely complements your diagram, and added it. -- Chetvorno TALK 09:06, 18 October 2009 (UTC)
 * Looks great :) --Petteri Aimonen (talk) 12:23, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Links
There was already a link in the article "Oscillation", in the overview of mechanical oscillations at the end. I added a link with a descriptive text in the section on "Coupled oscillators".(Huibc (talk) 10:10, 25 October 2010 (UTC)

baby square quotes in lead
The energy stored in the device shifts slowly back and forth between the translational 'up and down' oscillation mode and the torsional 'clockwise and counterclockwise' oscillation mode, until the motion eventually dies away.

Despite the name, in normal operation it does not swing back and forth as ordinary pendulums do. The mass usually has opposing pairs of radial 'arms' sticking out horizontally, threaded with small weights that can be screwed in or out to adjust the moment of inertia to 'tune' the torsional vibration period.

I get the baby square quotes around "up and down", but not so much the ones around "arms" and "tune". &mdash; MaxEnt 20:43, 24 May 2019 (UTC)

Computation of beat frequency
The beat frequency does not become arbitrarily low on a generic path through parameter space. As the natural frequencies of "twist" and "stretch" come closer together, the two eigenmodes change from being almost all one and almost all the other to coordinated oscillation in both ways, and never get closer in frequency than some constant (an avoided crossing.) As such, the computation in the article cannot be correct. 24.61.57.240 (talk) 21:18, 20 February 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks! If you have a WP:reliable source for this you can put it in the article. Try to make it understandable by general readers.  This section ("Beat frequency") was just meant to be an elementary description of the action for general (non-technically educated) readers.  If you want to add a mathematical derivation of the equations of motion and eigenmodes it should probably be put in a new section.  --ChetvornoTALK 00:10, 21 February 2022 (UTC)