Education
The Oscillator Project
We are funded by NSF to promote basic understanding of oscillators and their relation to physical and chemical phenomena. We appreciate new ideas and inputs.
(a) Simple harmonic oscillator. (b) Coupled oscillators. (c) Dissipative environment for an oscillator. (d) Nonlinear oscillator with asymmetric potential.
An undergraduate lab is being developed by us for understanding of coupled vibrations. Two pendula are coupled by a rubber band. Initiating one of the pendula results into transfer of energy to the other. Energy is exchanged between the pendula over a time-scale that scales inversely with the strength of the coupling. The strength of the coupling can be adjusted by either changing the stiffness of the rubber band loop or adjusting the position of the loop along the string.
A smart phone camera is used to capture the video of the oscillations. A green piece of tape placed on one of the pendula is an easy way to track the motion. A simple matlab image processing code is used to process the video frame by frame and track the position of pendulum by identifying the green dot. Students will get to change resonance conditions, coupling strengths, and nonlinearities to understand their effects on the coupled dynamics.
(a) Response of a nonlinear oscillator to a sinusoidal drive. (b) Relation between nonlinear response of an adsorbed molecule and a nonlinear laser spectroscopy experiment.
The initial steps of light harvesting in nature (a) relies upon transferring of energy through a chain of electronic oscillators made of chrlorophyll molecules (b).