 Solution

Write $w=\sqrt{1+2k}$. The initial conditions on the normal mode coordinates are $u(0)=v(0)=0$ and $\dot{u}(0)=\dot{v}(0)=k$. Solving the two harmonic oscillator equations and recovering the original angles gives the exact solution within the harmonic approximation:Their angular velocities are ${\dot{\theta }}_1=k(\cos t+\cos wt)/2$ and ${\dot{\theta }}_2=k(\cos t-\cos wt)/2$, which verify all four initial conditions.

To expose the beat, define $\Delta =w-1$ and $\Omega =(w+1)/2$. Replacing $1/w$ by $1$ changes each angle by $O(k^2)$ uniformly in time. The sum-to-product identities then giveThe displayed angular velocities are exact in the linear system. The absolute and signed beat envelopes have leading amplitudes $k|\cos (\Delta t/2)|$ and $k|\sin (\Delta t/2)|$. Because $\Delta =k+O(k^2)$, at $\tau =\pi /k$ we have $\Delta \tau /2=\pi /2+O(k)$ and $\Omega \tau =\tau +\pi /2+O(k)$. HenceThe first simple pendulum has negligible oscillation amplitude. Its kinetic energy is $T_1(\tau )=O(k^4)$, while the second has $T_2(\tau )=k^2{\cos }^2\tau /2+O(k^3)$. Thus, to the retained order, all instantaneous kinetic energy belongs to the second simple pendulum. The fast phase can make that kinetic energy small: the whole initial energy $k^2/2$ is transferred as the second simple pendulum's combined kinetic energy and gravitational potential energy, sinceThis is energy transfer after an impulse in two weakly coupled oscillators. It does not require $\cos \tau =1$.

At $2\tau$, $\Delta (2\tau )/2=\pi +O(k)$, so the beat has returned the oscillation to the first simple pendulum:The energy localization returns, although the fast oscillation phase need not equal its initial phase. The exact first minimum of the leading beat envelope is at $\pi /\Delta$, whose leading value is $\pi /k$. Keeping the slow phase $\Delta t$ is essential: expanding $\sin (wt)$ at fixed $t$ and then using $t=O(1/k)$ would lose the energy exchange. Although angles are retained only to order $k$, their leading energies are of order $k^2$.