Lecture Sheet-5 Waves and Oscillations

Torsional pendulum
A device consisting of a disk or other body of large moment of inertia mounted on one end of
a torsionally flexible elastic rod whose other end is held fixed; if the disk is twisted and
released, it will undergo simple harmonic motion, provided the torque in the rod is
proportional to the angle of twist, also known as torsion pendulum.

Fig. 1. A torsional pendulum.

A conventional pendulum is a mass suspended on a string that swings periodically. A torsion
pendulum is a mass suspended on a string (or torsion fiber) that rotates periodically. When
the mass of a torsion pendulum is rotated from its equilibrium position, the fiber resists the
rotation and provides a restoring force that causes the mass to rotate back to its original
equilibrium position. When the mass reaches its equilibrium position, it is moving quickly
and overshoots. The fiber's restoring force, which is proportional to the rotation angle of the
mass, eventually causes the mass to slow down and rotate back the other way. Because the
restoring force of the torsion fiber is very small, a torsion pendulum can be used to measure
extremely small forces affecting the test mass.

Time period of a torsional pendulum

Let us consider a disk suspended from a torsion wire
attached to its centre as shown in below (Fig. 2). A
torsion wire is essentially inextensible, but is free to twist
about its axis. Of course, as the wire twists it also causes
the disk attached to it to rotate in the horizontal plane. Let
𝜃 be the angle of rotation of the disk, and let 𝜃 = 0
correspond to the case in which the wire is untwisted.
Any twisting of the wire is inevitably associated with
mechanical deformation. The wire resists such
deformation by developing a restoring torque,𝜏, which
acts to restore the wire to its untwisted state. For
relatively small angles of twist, the magnitude of this
torque is directly proportional to the twist angle.
Fig. 2. Twisting of a torsional pendulum.
Md. Nadim Mahamud Nobin, Lecturer (Physics), Dept. of Arts & Sciences, BAUST Page: 1
Lecture Sheet-5 Waves and Oscillations

Hence, we can write

𝜏 = −𝑘𝜃 (1)

where 𝑘 > 0 is the torque constant of the wire. The above equation is essentially a torsional
equivalent to Hooke's law.
The rotational equation of motion of the system is written as

𝐼𝜃̈ = 𝜏 (2)
where 𝐼 is the moment of inertia of the disk (about a perpendicular axis through its centre).

Combining the previous two equations, we obtain

𝐼𝜃̈ = −𝑘𝜃

𝐼𝜃̈ + 𝑘𝜃 = 0

𝑘
𝜃̈ + 𝜃 = 0
𝐼

𝑑2𝜃
2
+ 𝜔2 𝜃 = 0 (3)
𝑑𝑡
Equation (3) is clearly a simple harmonic equation. Hence, we can immediately write the
standard solution of this equation.

𝜃 = 𝜃𝑚 sin (ωt + α)
Here, 𝜃𝑚 is the maximum angular displacement, i.e., the amplitude of the angular oscillation.
𝜔 is the angular frequency.
where,

𝐾
𝜔=√
𝐼

Since
2𝜋
𝑇=
𝜔
So, the time period of oscillation will be
𝐼
𝑇 = 2𝜋√
𝐾

We conclude that, when a torsion pendulum is perturbed from its equilibrium state (i.e., 𝜃 =
0), it executes torsional oscillations about this state at a fixed frequency, 𝜔, which depends
only on the torque constant of the wire and the moment of inertia of the disk.

Md. Nadim Mahamud Nobin, Lecturer (Physics), Dept. of Arts & Sciences, BAUST Page: 2
 Lecture Sheet-5 Waves and Oscillations

Two-body oscillations

Fig. 3. (a) Two bodies of mass 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 connected by a (massless) spring whose unstressed length is l.
(b) A single body of mass  (the reduced mass) connected by an identical spring to a rigid wall.

Fig. 3(a) shows two bodies of mass 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 connected by a (massless) spring of force
constant 𝑘; the system is free to oscillate on a frictionless horizontal surface. We locate the
ends of the spring by the coordinates 𝑥1 (𝑡) and 𝑥2 (𝑡), as shown. The length of the spring at
any instant is 𝑥1 − 𝑥2 . If its normal, unstressed length is 𝑙, then the change in length of the
spring, 𝑥(𝑡), is given by
𝑥 = (𝑥1 − 𝑥2 ) − 𝑙 (1)

If 𝑥 is positive, the spring is stretched, if 𝑥 = 0, the spring has its normal length, and if 𝑥 is
negative, it is compressed.

In fig. 3(a) we assume, for concreteness, that the spring is stretched, so that 𝑥 > 0. We show
also the force 𝐹 exerted by the spring on 𝑚1 and the force – 𝐹 exerted on 𝑚2 . These two
forces are equal and opposite, as the figure shows, and have the common magnitude 𝐹 = 𝑘𝑥.

If we apply Newton’s second law, 𝐹 = 𝑚𝑎, to 𝑚1 and 𝑚2 we obtain

𝑑 2 𝑥1
𝑚1 = −𝑘𝑥
𝑑𝑡 2
and
𝑑 2 𝑥2
𝑚2 = +𝑘𝑥
𝑑𝑡 2
Let us now multiply the first equation by 𝑚2 and second equation by 𝑚1 and subtract. We
obtain
𝑑2 𝑥1 𝑑 2 𝑥2
𝑚1 𝑚2 − 𝑚 𝑚
1 2 = −𝑚2 𝑘𝑥 − 𝑚1 𝑘𝑥
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑑𝑡 2
which can be written as
𝑑2
𝑚1 𝑚2 2 (𝑥1 − 𝑥2 ) = −(𝑚1 + 𝑚2 )𝑘𝑥
𝑑𝑡

𝑚1 𝑚2 𝑑 2
(𝑥 − 𝑥2 ) = −𝑘𝑥 (2)
𝑚1 + 𝑚2 𝑑𝑡 2 1

Md. Nadim Mahamud Nobin, Lecturer (Physics), Dept. of Arts & Sciences, BAUST Page: 3
Lecture Sheet-5 Waves and Oscillations

Let us call the quantity

𝑚1 𝑚2
,
𝑚1 + 𝑚2

which has the dimension of mass, the reduced mass of the system and give it the symbol 𝜇.

That is,
𝑚1 𝑚2
𝜇= (3)
𝑚1 + 𝑚2
Because 𝑙 is a constant,
𝑑2 𝑑2𝑥
(𝑥 − 𝑥2 ) = 2
𝑑𝑡 2 1 𝑑𝑡
and equation (2) now can be written as

𝑑2𝑥
𝜇 2 + 𝑘𝑥 = 0
𝑑𝑡

𝑑2𝑥 𝑘
+ 𝑥=0 (4)
𝑑𝑡 2 𝜇
This is identical with
𝑑2𝑥 𝑘
+ 𝑥=0 (5)
𝑑𝑡 2 𝑚
which we developed for the single-body oscillation.

The differences are that

(i) x in equation (4) is the relative displacement of the two blocks from their equilibrium
positions (equation:(1)) rather than the displacement of a single block from its
equilibrium position, and

(ii)  is the reduced mass of the pair of blocks rather than the mass of a single block.

From equation (3) we can write

1 1 1
= + (6)
𝜇 𝑚1 𝑚2
Thus (for finite masses) 𝜇 is always smaller than 𝑚1 or 𝑚2 ; hence the name reduced mass.

Equation (4) leads to the derivation of the frequency and period of oscillation of the system of
fig. 3(a).
𝑘
𝜔2 =
𝜇

𝑘
𝜔=√
𝜇
Md. Nadim Mahamud Nobin, Lecturer (Physics), Dept. of Arts & Sciences, BAUST Page: 4
Lecture Sheet-5 Waves and Oscillations

Hence
𝑘
2𝜋𝜐 = √
𝜇

1 𝑘
𝜐= √ (7)
2𝜋 𝜇
We know, the time period is
1
𝑇=
𝜐
Thus
𝜇
𝑇 = 2π√ (8)
𝑘

It is clear that the system has the same frequency and period as a single block of mass 
connected by a similar spring to a rigid wall, as in fig. 3(b). Hence, the two-body oscillation
of fig. 3(a) is equivalent to one-body oscillation of fig. 3(b). One particle moves relative to
the other particle as though the other particle were fixed and the mass of the moving one were
reduced to 
Reduced mass

In physics, the reduced mass is the "effective" mass appearing in the two-body problem. It is
a quantity which allows the two-body problem to be solved as if it were a one-body problem.
In the computation one mass can be replaced by the reduced mass, if this is compensated by
replacing the other mass by the sum of both masses. The reduced mass is denoted by . It has
the dimensions of mass, and SI unit kg.
Given two bodies, one with mass m1 and the other with mass m2, the equivalent one-body
problem, with the position of one body with respect to the other as the unknown, is that of a
single body of mass
1 𝑚1 𝑚2
𝜇= =
1 1 𝑚1 + 𝑚2
𝑚1 + 𝑚2
where the force on this mass is given by the force between the two bodies.

Md. Nadim Mahamud Nobin, Lecturer (Physics), Dept. of Arts & Sciences, BAUST Page: 5