Virtual Lab to run Logarithmic Damping Decrement Experiments

A university-level educational Virtual Lab that in order to detect the damping an oscillator is experimenting applies the technique of Logarithmic Damping Decrement has been created. After input parameters (mass, elastic constant and viscosity of the medium) are entered by the user of the simulation module, this displays the corresponding curve of displacement vs time, x (t), on computer screen. Next the module allows the user to manually click with the mouse on the peaks (or valleys) of the displayed curve and, once the user has clicked 10 of these, the module computes the logarithmic decrement and from this, the experimental damping of the oscillator. The user may repeat this stage by clicking 10 valleys (or peaks) of the x (t) curve. With the aim on obtaining reference theoretical results, right after input data has been entered the module automatically detects the extreme displacements of the x (t) curve and it applies the logarithmic decrement algorithm to these data and from this the damping of the system is calculated. At the end of the simulation the virtual lab shows the theoretical as well as the experimental results so that the user can compare them. In this way, if the user has correctly clicked the extremes (peaks and/or valleys) of x (t), his experimental results as it is expected- are verified as being very close to the expected result calculated by the virtual lab.