Home▸Physics & Mechanics▸Pendulum Wave (2D) — N Independent Pendulums Forming a Traveling Wave

🧪 Pendulum Wave (2D) — N Independent Pendulums Forming a Traveling Wave

N independent small-angle pendulums, each with a length tuned so it swings exactly one more time than its neighbour over a shared re-sync period, drawn from a common rail: the row starts moving as one line, spreads into a traveling wave, and periodically collapses back into sync — with a live Kuramoto-style coherence readout.

Physics & Mechanics2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version

This 2D companion drives its own set of independent pendulums through a plain canvas view built for reading the physics rather than orbiting a scene: a side panel exposes pendulum count, base swing count, re-sync period and swing amplitude, a live strip chart tracks a Kuramoto-style coherence order parameter R(t) — 1 when every pendulum shares a phase, dropping toward 0 as the row scrambles into a traveling wave — and a countdown to the next full re-sync makes the periodic collapse back into a single line predictable instead of a surprise, giving the same underlying physics as the 3D version (each length set by ω=√(g/L)) a reading-focused, data-driven presentation.

⚙ Under the hood

2D pendulum-wave lab: N independent small-angle pendulums with lengths tuned so their periods differ by one extra swing per cycle, producing a traveling wave that scrambles and re-syncs, with a live Kuramoto-style coherence readout.

pendulum wavesimple harmonic motionphase coherencekuramoto order parameteroscillatory motion

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install