Oscillating Carts
Purpose
Demonstrates normal modes of coupled oscillators. Students observe in-phase and out-of-phase motions, beat phenomena from mixed initial conditions, and how the number of normal modes scales with the number of coupled masses.
Figure 1:
Two-cart configuration with springs connecting bumper–cart–cart–bumper for in-phase and out-of-phase normal mode demonstrations.
Figure 2:
Four-cart configuration with five springs. The track can accommodate up to six carts and can also show longitudinal pulse propagation.