Investigation of pendulum damping using an angle sensor and video analysis: combination of viscous and dry friction

Abstract

Viscous and Coulomb’s friction combined contribute to the damping of a pendulum; however, they are usually treated as a silo effect. In this study, we investigate the combination of viscous and Coulomb damping in compound pendulum oscillation, employing two modern instruments that are cheap and handy to quantify the experiments, which are video analysis and a microcontroller angle sensor. From the model fitting, variables and parameters of the motion such as angular frequency, period, moment of inertia, and viscous and frictional parameters are obtained with high accuracy and consistency between angle sensor and video analysis data. This study contributes to the use of technology in physics education, specifically in physics experiments. It is relevant for high school physics and university introductory physics as the basis to advance study in the damped oscillation of the pendulum.