The Driven Pendulum at Arbitrary Drive Angle

Abstract

We discuss the equation of motion of the driven pendulum and generalize it to arbitrary driving angle. The pendulum will oscillate about a stable angle other than straight down if the drive amplitude and frequency are large enough for a given drive angle. The emphasis is on the parameters associated with a simply made demonstration apparatus.

arXiv commentv1: 32 pages, 25 figures submitted to the American Journal of Physics. v2: 22 pages, 16 figures, after initial review. v3: 19 pages, 12 figures, accepted by the American Journal of Physics. After it is published it will be found at http://ojps.aip.org/ajp