plotutils-graph-patches-lloda/ode-examples/atwoods.ode

# This example simulates a `swinging Atwood's machine'.  An Atwood's
# machine consists of two masses joined by a taut length of cord.  The cord
# is suspended from a pulley.  The heavier mass (M) would normally win
# against the lighter mass (m), and pull it upward.  A `swinging' Atwood's
# machine is an Atwood's machine with an additional degree of freedom: it
# allows the lighter mass to swing back and forth in a plane, at the same
# time as it is being drawn upward.

# Let `a' denote the angle by which the cord extending to the lighter mass
# deviates from the vertical.  Let `l' denote the distance along the cord
# between the pulley and the lighter mass.  Then the system of differential
# equations below will describe the evolution of the system.

# You may run this example, with output to an X window in real time, by doing
#
#	ode < atwoods.ode | graph -T X -x 9 11 -y -1 1 -m 0 -S 1
# 
# The plot will trace out `l' and `ldot' (its time derivative).  The `-m 0
# -S 1' option requests that successive datapoints not be joined by line
# segments, but rather that marker symbol #1 (a point) be plotted at the
# location of each datapoint.

# You may have some difficulty believing the results of this simulation.
# Allowing the lighter mass to swing, it turns out, may prevent the heavier
# mass from winning against it.  The system may oscillate,
# non-periodically.

m = 1		# lighter mass
M = 1.0625	# heavier mass

a = 0.5		# initial angle of cord from vertical, in radians
adot = 0
l = 10		# initial distance along cord from pulley to mass m
ldot = 0
g = 9.8		# acceleration due to gravity

ldot' = ( m * l * adot * adot - M * g + m * g * cos(a) ) / (m + M)
l'    = ldot
adot' = (-1/l) * (g * sin(a) +  2 * adot * ldot)
a'    = adot

print l, ldot
step 0, 400