Lecture involves
Pendulum physics, F = ma with linear air resistance
This is a 2nd-order nonlinear differential equation in one variable, theta. 2nd order b/c term. Nonlinear b/c . Linearization for small theta would approximate sin theta = theta for small . No big thing
Matlab can integrate 1st-order nonlinear ODEs in n variables, of form
dx/dt = f(t,x)
for vector x. Fortunately we can always convert an nth-order ODE in 1 variable to a 1st order ODE in n variables, as follows. Let
Then
dx1/dt = d theta/dt = x2
dx2/dt = d theta'/dt = theta'' = - c theta' - g/l sin theta = -c x2 - g/l sin x1
So for vector x = (x1, x2),
dx/dt = f(t,x) = (x2, -c x2 - g/l sin x1)
Let's code this as an anonymous function in Matlab, setting constants prior
c = 0; % no air resistance g = 9.8; % gravity in mks (m/s^2)x l = 1.0; % one meter pendulum
f = @(t,x) [x(2); -c*x(2) - g/l * sin(x(1))];
% integrate system of ODEs from t=0 to t=100, from initial condition % [x1; x2] = [theta; theta'] = [pi/10; 0], using Matlab's ode45
[t, x] = ode45(f, [0 20], [pi/10; 0])
% outputs are an % N-vector t of timesteps % N x 2 matrix x whose cols are x1, x2 = theta, theta' at the N timesteps % e.g. x(:,1) is N-vector of theta at times corresponding to N-vector t.
% can graph theta versus t as follows
plot(t, x(:,1), 'b')