

Swinging Atwood Machine (js physics simulation) - ivan_ah
http://www.dllu.net/samjs/

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ivan_ah
This is a brilliant illustration of a consequence of conservation of angular
momentum. Even if the spinning mass is made to be very small, it is enough to
resist being pulled over by the falling mass. As the string gets shorter
(small r) the angular velocity must increase and so does the tension in the
string.

Energy shuffles between the rotational kinetic energy of the spinning mass and
the potential energy of the vertically moving mass.

I don't quite fully understand all that is going on, but I find it amazing
that we can learn physics from js simulations... who needs a big lab for
experiments when there is the browser?

Props to @dllu for coding this.

