Resumo

CORREA, Eberth; ORTIZ, J.S. Espinoza; VALERIO, Mauro  e  DUTRA, Jomhara. Variable mass harmonic oscillator and the Newton's second law. Rev. Bras. Ensino Fís. [online]. 2011, vol.33, n.4, pp. 4307-4307. ISSN 1806-1117.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1806-11172011000400007.

We employ the Newton's second law to describe the variable mass oscillator system. We describe and set up an experimental apparatus in order to measure the oscillations and other parameters with the help of equipments available commercially. By using a preconceived model for such a system we are able to fit the experimental results with a good agreement. To accomplish this task we developed a C++ program which can extract the experimental values of the amplitude of the oscillatory movement as well as to rotate the coordinates system in order to set apart the translational movement from the oscillatory one.

Palavras-chave : harmonic oscillator; variable mass; normal modes.