Author: Peter Lynch
Software requirements: Matlab
The Swinging Spring or elastic pendulum is a simple mechanical system that exhibits complex dynamics. It consists of a heavy mass suspended from a fixed point by a light spring which can stretch but not bend, moving under gravity. It can oscillate in two fundamentally different ways: vertically, with the elasticity of the spring acting as a restoring force or (quasi-)horizontally like a pendulum, with gravity as the restoring force.
This program illustrates the principle of linear and nonlinear normal mode initialization on the swinging spring problem. The user can compare how the two initializations perform as the parameters of the problem are changed.
