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Re: [Phys-l] Help With Lissajous curves



On Aug 30, 2009, at 11:24 AM, Pete Lohstreter wrote:

Forum for Physics Educators <phys-l@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu> writes:
I am trying to use an oscilloscope to generate Lissajous curves for my
math class but it seems that one must have control not only of the
vertical displacement of the beam but also of the horizontal (sweep?)
displacement. Do most scopes give this control? I don't seem to be
able to find it on the ones I have? What should I be looking for on the
scope for the horizontal input?

Thanks for any help you can offer on this, David Abineri

Almost all of the scopes I have access to have a 'dual trace' input. If
you have two inputs on the front, Y1 and Y2, usually you can find a switch
somewhere on the front that is marked XY. This will turn one of the
normally Y inputs into the X input.

Have you tried to find computer applets that do the same thing? There
should be a few out there that take the stereo input from your sound card
and display it in the XY mode. Way cheaper than an O-scope.

Another possibility is to ask students to create Lissajous figures by themselves; I was asked to do this, many decades ago. Would this be a waste of time today?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Ludwik Kowalski, a retired physics teacher and an amateur journalist. Updated links to selected publications and reviews are at:

http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/cf/ http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/my_opeds.html http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/revcom.html

Also an ESSAY ON ECONOMICS at: http://csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/economy/essay9.html