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Re: non-Hookeish springs



And this is what allows the construction of the so-called Wilberforce
pendulum in which, if the rotational inertia and the mass are adjusted
just so, you can see energy transfer between two modes of oscillation
(longitudinal and torsional). It's a wonderful, thought-provoking physics
toy.

How did you know? I wound the spring to make a Wilberforce pendulum, one
I still have and use here at Simon Fraser University. It works beautifully,
despite the fact that a lab technician here, thinking he was doing me a
favor, painted the whole thing, including the spring! I was horrified, of
course. The paint killed the Q of the spring and detuned the thing
terribly. Fortunately it all came off quite easily with a good soak in
thinner.

Leigh