Acceleration, Velocity, and Displacement for Magnetically Damped Oscillations

Abstract

Oscillatory motion with damping proportional to the velocity is part of all upper-class physics courses and some introductory courses; however, the emphasis is primarily on the free amplitude decay. Microelectromechanical (MEMs) accelerometers allow the acceleration to be directly measured and the velocity and displacement to be derived from it. The quality of the data is such that the predicted shifts between the acceleration and displacement extrema and zero crossings can be directly observed, the transition to critical damping studied, the linear velocity dependence of the drag confirmed directly, and the oscillations in the energy decay observed.