CHAOTIC PENDULUM BASED ON TORSION AND GRAVITY IN OPPOSITION

An unconventional driven torsion pendulum influenced by gravity has be en studied for chaos. Through the use of a symmetric differential capa citive sensor and a galvanometer, phase-space trajectories were genera ted with an x-y recorder. These were then later compared against outpu t from a computer model of the system which has been further used to g enerate Poincare sections, Fourier transforms, and time records. Sensi tive dependence on initial conditions as a function of frequency and d rive amplitude was demonstrated. (C) 1995 American Association of Phys ics Teachers.