THE LIBRATION LIMITS OF THE ELASTIC PENDULUM

The motion of the elastic pendulum is ruled by coupling between the pe ndulum mode and the harmonic oscillator mode. The bob of the pendulum executes trajectories in a domain of the vertical plane, the shape and size of which are set by the initial conditions and the total energy of the pendulum. The limits of this libration, in exact resonance, are studied using parabolic coordinates. Other Hamiltonians, with similar interaction terms, exhibit similar libration limits. (C) 1995 America n Association of Physics Teachers.