Pendulum dynamics in an amusement park

摘要

Pendulums have long been used to to determine the kinematics of non-inertial rotating systems. A proper study of this classical mechanical device under the action of a rotating reference frame can fully describe the behavior of such non-inertial systems. In such venue, we have placed a pendulum inside a rotating plane ride in an amusement park, and determined the parameters defining the rotation of the ride by solely analyzing the pendulum's motion. We present two different methodologies to determine the motion patterns of the ride as well as a computer-based reproduction of the trajectory of the pendulum throughout the ride.