WOLFRAM|DEMONSTRATIONS PROJECT

Coupled Point Masses on a Circle

​
t
8.
k
0.1
m
0.1
φ
1
(0)
1.27
φ
2
(0)
2.84
φ
3
(0)
4.41
φ
4
(0)
5.98
′
φ
1
(0)
0.
′
φ
2
(0)
0.
′
φ
3
(0)
0.
′
φ
4
(0)
0.
view
circle
plot
This Demonstration solves a system of four point masses connected with springs constrained to lie on a circular ring. Qualitatively, you can observe uniform rotation and in-phase and out-of-phase vibration, but the crossings and overlappings in the solutions are unphysical and not mentioned in textbooks.