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Motion of Simple Pendulum Using Matlab

This document discusses the numerical solutions of the simple pendulum differential equation using the Euler and Euler-Cromer methods. The Euler method shows that the amplitude increases without bound over long time intervals of integration. In contrast, the Euler-Cromer method demonstrates amplitude stability even over large integration times. The key difference between the two methods is that Euler-Cromer updates the angular velocity at the end of each time step rather than at the beginning.

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Dr. Shibaji Banerjee
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165 views3 pages

Motion of Simple Pendulum Using Matlab

This document discusses the numerical solutions of the simple pendulum differential equation using the Euler and Euler-Cromer methods. The Euler method shows that the amplitude increases without bound over long time intervals of integration. In contrast, the Euler-Cromer method demonstrates amplitude stability even over large integration times. The key difference between the two methods is that Euler-Cromer updates the angular velocity at the end of each time step rather than at the beginning.

Uploaded by

Dr. Shibaji Banerjee
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Euler calculation of motion of simple pendulum

The D.E is valid when is kept small

Equivalent first order equations are

This solution shows that the amplitude keeps on increasing if the time of integration is large.

clear;
length = 1;
%pendulum length in metres
g =9.8;
% acceleration due to gravity
npoints = 250;
%Discretize time into 250 intervals
dt = 0.04;
%time step in seconds
omega = zeros(npoints,1);
% initializes omega, a vector of dimension
% npoints X 1,to being all zeros
theta = zeros(npoints,1);
% initializes theta, a vector of dimension
% npoints X 1,to being all zeros
time = zeros(npoints,1);
% this initializes the vector time to being all zeros
theta(1) =0.2;
% you need to have some initial displacement,
% otherwise the pendulum will not swing
 
 
for step = 1:npoints-1
% loop over the timesteps
 
omega(step+1) = omega(step) - (g/length)*theta(step)*dt;
theta(step+1) = theta(step)+omega(step)*dt;
time(step+1) = time(step) + dt;
end
plot(time,theta,'r' );
%plots the numerical solution in red
xlabel('time (seconds) ');
ylabel('theta (radians)');
The next solution, using Euler-Cromer method, shows that the amplitude is stable even if the time of
integration is too large

omega = zeros(npoints,1);
theta = zeros(npoints,1);

time = zeros(npoints,1);
theta(1) = 0.2;
for step = 1:npoints-1
% loop over the timesteps
 
omega(step+1) = omega(step) - (g/length)*theta(step)*dt;
theta(step+1) = theta(step)+omega(step+1)*dt;
time(step+1) = time(step) + dt;
end
plot(time,theta,'r' );
%plots the numerical solution in red
xlabel('time (seconds) ');
ylabel('theta (radians)');
The only difference between the two methods is in the two lines which runs within the for loop:

vs.

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