Torsion pendulum

A harmonic oscillator in which a restoring torque is proportional to angular displacement; its moment of inertia and torsion constant set the natural angular frequency.

Two identical torsional loads of moment of inertia $I$ hang in series from massless fibres of lengths ${\ell }_1,{\ell }_2$ and common filament torsional stiffness $K_t$. Put $R={\ell }_2/{\ell }_1$ and ${\omega }_0^2=K_t/(I{\ell }_1)$. The elastic energy is $K_t{\varphi }_1^2/(2{\ell }_1)+K_t({\varphi }_2-{\varphi }_1{)}^2/(2{\ell }_2)$ and the kinetic energy is $I({\dot{\varphi }}_1^2+{\dot{\varphi }}_2^2)/2$. Their normal modes have the displayed squared angular frequencies. Writing $\lambda ={\omega }^2/{\omega }_0^2$, their amplitude ratio is $A_2/A_1=1/(1-R\lambda )$. The lower mode twists in phase and approaches a combined inertia $2I$ as $R\to 0$, giving ${\omega }_{-}^2\to {\omega }_0^2/2$. The upper mode approaches the original single-load oscillation as $R\to \infty$, giving ${\omega }_{+}^2\to {\omega }_0^2$.