Publication details
Damping forces 
- a friend or a foe in explaining mechanical motion?
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Original title: | Damping forces - a friend or a foe in explaining mechanical motion? |
| Authors: | Jiří Bartoš, Jana Musilová |
| Further information | |
|---|---|
| Citation: | BARTOŠ, Jiří and Jana MUSILOVÁ. Damping forces - a friend or a
foe in explaining mechanical motion? (Damping forces - a friend
or a foe in explaining mechanical motion?). European Journal of
Physics, GB: European Journal of Physics, 2006, vol. 2006, No
27, p. 383-392. ISSN 0143-0807.Export BibTeX @article{622646, author = {Bartoš, Jiří and Musilová, Jana}, article_location = {GB}, article_number = {27}, keywords = {damping; force; oscillator; drag; Newton; Stokes; experiment}, language = {eng}, issn = {0143 -0807},journal = {European Journal of Physics}, title = {Damping forces - a friend or a foe in explaining mechanical motion?},url = {http://physics.muni.cz/~bartos/resdemexp.html}, volume = {2006}, year = {2006} } |
| Original language: | English |
| Field: | Theoretical physics |
| WWW: |  http://physics.muni.cz/~bartos/resdemexp.html |
| Type: | Article in Periodical |
| Keywords: | damping; force; oscillator; drag; Newton; Stokes; experiment |
The paper presents simle, cheap, easily accessible and for students impressive demonstration experiments for three typical examples of physical systems for which damping forces ought to be involved in the equations of motion: a body falling in air, a damped mechanical oscillator, and Foucault currents. Various models of such forces are studied within an elementary physical and mathematical approach. It appears, maybe as a slightly suprising result that a commonly used model of damping forces in mechanics - the air drag force linearly depending on velocity - is not realistic in many typical situations. Equations of motion are solved numerically with standard software packages even in cases where an analytical solution exists. Thus, the explanation of solved problems is on a level corresponding to an undergraduate university course of general physics. The results of these demonstration experiments are compared with graphical outputs of numerical solutions.
