Teacher Demonstration
Use the live model as a shared screen demonstration before students try their own predictions and observations.
Physics / Newtonian Mechanics
Plane Rigid Pendulum
Explore Plane Rigid Pendulum as an interactive EJS simulation for mechanics.
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1. Watch or Launch
Launch the Interactive
Open the simulation, adjust the controls, and compare what changes on screen before answering the concept-check questions.
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2. Big Ideas
Key idea Damping reduces oscillation amplitude over time by transferring mechanical energy out of the oscillating system. Tracker data can show this through shrinking peaks or a decreasing envelope.
What Students Can Learn
- Identify successive peaks in displacement or height.
- Compare amplitudes across cycles.
- Connect amplitude decay to energy dissipation.
- Distinguish damping from the restoring force that still acts.
Guiding Question
How quickly does the amplitude shrink, and what does that say about energy transfer?
3. Try the Investigation
Find Repeated Peaks
Mark several maxima or minima in the motion or graph.
Compare Amplitudes
Measure or estimate whether each peak is smaller than the previous one.
Link to Energy
Explain that smaller amplitude means less mechanical energy remains in the oscillation.
Separate Forces
Distinguish the restoring effect from damping or resistance.
4. Teacher Notes
Lesson Use
Use this as a graph-evidence lesson: damping should be argued from successive peaks, not from one frame.
Discussion Prompts
Ask: Which peak is smaller? Does the period change? Where has mechanical energy gone?
Teaching Moves
Have students draw an envelope over the graph peaks and describe what it means.
5. Concept Check
These questions are generated from the topic and the concept illustrated by the simulation. Use them after students have explored the model.
Concept Score
Correct first attempts build a streak and unlock higher point multipliers on this device.
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Answer each question once to build your streak.
1. What visible evidence indicates damping?
2. What happens to mechanical energy in damping?
3. Why compare successive peaks?
4. Does damping mean the restoring force is absent?
5. What is a strong damping conclusion?
Expert Challenge
Unlocks after 3 correct concept-check answers on this page.
1. In a pendulum interactive, where is speed usually greatest and what evidence should be used?
2. What is the best expert feedback for 'the pendulum turns around because tension pushes it sideways'?
3. If the model lets length change, what should students compare?
4. What is the expert response to 'larger amplitude always means a much shorter period'?
5. What makes a pendulum conclusion expert-level?
7. Learning Pulse
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