Lissajous Pendulum

Last crawled date: 1 year, 10 months ago

Original project made with Autodesk Inventor 2014 as a Dynamic simulation. The action is due to the gravitation force only.

Here we have a pendulum which oscillate for 9.81 seconds without any friction. The wires are just like the bicycle spokes.

You have to note that there are two perpendicular directions for oscillation:
• Longitudinal - The length of pendulum is measured from the axis of the part „Axle - spacer”
• Transversal - The length of pendulum is measured from the axis of the crossing hole of the part „Link”

The moment of start (the zero seconds) is when the pendulum is inclined on both directions from the vertical. Because the lengths of pendulum on the two directions are different, the trace has the shape of the Lissajous curve.

Here is presented the case of a non-closed Lissajous curve. In order to obtain a closed one, the frequencies of the two composed oscillations must be in an exactly rational ratio one to each other (like 4:5 or 20:25 etc.). Try to obtain such a curve!

As usual, if you work with Inventor you will find all the .iam and .ipt files so you can download them to enter Environments / Dynamic simulation and see for yourself what's happening. You will have all the settings at your will, so you can change everything.

By replacing the weight with a funnel filled with sand, the Lissajous curve will appear on the horizontal plate as a streak of sand.

Enjoy!