Investigating viscous damping using a webcam
@article{Shamim2010InvestigatingVD, title={Investigating viscous damping using a webcam}, author={Sohaib A Shamim and Wasif Zia and Muhammad Sabieh Anwar}, journal={American Journal of Physics}, year={2010}, volume={78}, pages={433-436} }
We describe an experiment involving a mass oscillating in a viscous fluid. The mechanical oscillator is tracked using a simple webcam, and an image processing algorithm records the position of the geometrical center as a function of time. Interesting information can be extracted from the displacement-time graphs, in particular, for the underdamped case. For example, we use these oscillations to determine the viscosity of the fluid. Our mean value of 1.08±0.07 mPa s for distilled water is in…
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