This simulation demonstrates a number of physically and technically interesting oscillators, which are described by simple, ordinary differential equations of second order.
You can select from a range of oscillators in the comboBox, including the gravity pendulum, with predefined initial conditions and step width of calculation. Their differential equation is shown in the text field, where it can be edited. There you can also insert formulas of your own.
The initial values of the function and of its first derivative can be varied by sliders, or more accurately by inserting numbers into the corresponding number fields.
The range of the variable x can be defined in field xmax. The calculation step width can be changed with a slider. Larger steps lead to less accuracy of the calculation. A 5 step Runge−Kutta algorithm is used for the numerical calculation (Runge−Kutta−Fehlberg).
A second window shows the phase space projections y´(y) and y´´(y).
You can deactivate a third window, which shows the rotating 3-dimensional phase space projection y (y´, y´´).
Button start/stop starts and freezes the calculation. Back resets to x = 0 yet leaves old traces, to enable superimposing curves with different initial conditions . Clear clears all traces. Reset resets to the default initial conditions.