An original reduced model makes the calibration explicit. Let the torsion pendulum have restoring torque , with torsion constant , and viscous damping torque , with . Allow an unwanted axial torque :
Here is the undamped natural angular frequency and the quality factor. The forced harmonic oscillator response must be included before a twist can be interpreted as a torque.
Using the complex amplitude convention and similarly for and , differentiation multiplies by . Substitution gives
This is the torque-to-twist transfer function. With and real positive , the twist amplitude is
For , the twist phase relative to is . At it is zero, although the reaction torque leads by . A phase measured at the mirror is not automatically the phase of the applied torque.
A fixed-amplitude reference torque measures directly. The Einstein-de Haas effect instead contains an extra factor when stays fixed. Consequently its twist amplitude peaks exactly at in this model, whereas the fixed-torque peak is at when . To verify the first statement, divide the squared denominator of by : the quantity to minimize is , minimized at . Both response curves tend to zero at high frequency; only the magnetomechanical curve also tends to zero at zero frequency.
Figure 1.
Calibrated forced torsion: distinguish the mechanical response from the magnetic drive
. Original calculated curves, not historical measurements or fitted data. A constant reference torque and a constant-amplitude magnetic dipole moment share the same mechanical transfer function. The lower plot uses each input's own cosine as its phase reference. Markers at show equal twist amplitudes but different phases. Details.
For a fully stipulated example, choose , , , , and . These teaching inputs give , , reaction torque amplitude at , and
An optical lever at distance gives small-displacement spot amplitude ; its full peak-to-peak width is . For a fast reversal from to , the same inputs give and initial , provided the external angular impulse is negligible.
One independent mechanical calibration adds known moment of inertia , keeping unchanged. If are the undamped oscillation periods before and after adding it, then
For in the stipulated example, and , recovering the chosen and . Real damped periods require a damping correction: a free decay has angular envelope and oscillation angular frequency . Measuring that decay determines . Calibrating the optical scale, mechanical response and change of magnetic dipole moment separately is what makes the inferred gyromagnetic ratio meaningful.
The original apparatus has two small masses at distance from the suspension axis. Neglecting the rod's moment of inertia, their total moment of inertia is , consistent with the supplied torsion pendulum period. Treat and as exact because no uncertainties are specified. Rearranging the period relation gives
The torsion constant is a restoring torque per unit angle. In dimensional calculations the radian is dimensionless.
Using first-order propagation of uncertainty, with the quoted period uncertainty interpreted as a standard uncertainty,
Consequently
Let be each sphere's moment of inertia about the fibre, and let be the common fibre filament torsional stiffness, so a length exerts restoring torque . The single-sphere torsion pendulum obeys
For the two coupled torsional pendulums, the upper fibre has twist and the joining fibre has relative twist . The joining fibre exerts equal and opposite torques on the two spheres:
Using the measured gives
The fibre's own rotational inertia and damping are neglected, so its twists supply elastic torques without additional dynamic coordinates.
As , the short joining fibre is very stiff and the lower normal mode has . The spheres therefore behave as one torsional load with combined moment of inertia , suspended by the upper fibre of torsion constant . Its angular frequency satisfies
The high-frequency opposite-twist mode costs increasingly large elastic energy and moves to arbitrarily high frequency in the massless-fibre model.
As , the joining fibre is very compliant. In the higher normal mode the lower sphere scarcely moves: the amplitude ratio tends to . The upper sphere approaches the original single torsion pendulum, giving
The other mode is then a slow twist of the almost freely suspended lower sphere. These interpretations assume the formal limits do not invalidate the thin massless-fibre approximation.