Experimental Procedure
 

Resonance Frequency

Linear System at Low Voltages

Increased Diving Voltage

Spectrum Analyzer

Mathematica


To begin the experiment, we found the resonance frequency of the circuit experimentally. We did this by varrying the frequency of the driving voltage and watching the digital oscilloscope for large changes in the output signal. We kept the driving voltage at the resonance frequency for the remainder of the experiment.

We started with the driving voltage very low so that the circuit would behave as a linear system. We took a reading to ensure that we would get a peak on the spectrum analyzer at the frequency of the driving voltage. We increased the voltage continually, always watching the digital oscilloscope for signs of period doubling, period tripling, period quadrupling or chaos. When we felt that we had reached a level for the driving voltage that was producing one of these phenomena, we used the spectrum analyzer to look at the Fourier transform of the output signal. If we were correct and desired activity was present, we captured the data from the oscilloscope screen with a computer and analyzed the data using Mathematica.

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