An Attempt to Promote Understanding of Coupled Vibration

Abstract

A coupled vibration such as two mass points linked by springs is one of difficult subjects for students to understand only with its associated mathematical expressions. For this subject, students are required to learn how to solve second-order linear differential equations in a mathematical course in the first year, and then study the vibration theory followed by experimental activities in the third year. Here, in order to promote their insight into the vibrational phenomenon, we introduced a numerical simulation for the coupled vibration prior to conducting the experiment. As a result, we confirmed some degree of the causal correlation between the utilization of the simulation and the achievement of the experimental activity. In addition, questionnaire survey results showed that implementation of pre-and post-simulation assisted to improve the understanding of meaning of the experiment and its theoretical background.