A new analytical approximate expression for the period of the simple pendulum is obtained by using a heuristic but pedagogical derivation. This formula depends on two parameters obtained by comparing term-by-term the power-series expansions of the approximate and exact expressions…

Despite its frequent use, there is little understanding of the concept of differential
among upper high school and undergraduate students of physics. As a first step to identify the origin of this situation and to revert it, we have done…

This paper deals with the non-linear oscillation of a simple pendulum and presents an approach for solving the non-linear differential equation that governs its movement by using the harmonic balance method. With this technique it is possible to easily obtain…

The homotopy perturbation method is used to solve the nonlinear differential equation that governs the nonlinear oscillations of a simple pendulum, and an approximate expression for its period is obtained. Only one iteration leads to high accuracy of the solutions…

The sea level variation (SLVtotal) is the sum of two major contributions: steric and mass-induced. The steric SLVsteric is that resulting from the thermal and salinity changes in a given water column. It only involves volume change, hence has no…

Reply to comment by L. Fenoglio-Marc et al. on “On the steric and mass-induced contributions to the annual sea level variations in the Mediterranean Sea”., This work is supported by the Spanish Science and Technology Ministry Project ESP2006-11357.

The second-order harmonic balance method is used to construct three approximate frequency-amplitude relations for a conservative nonlinear singular oscillator in which the restoring force is inversely proportional to the dependent variable. Two procedures are used to solve the nonlinear differential…

An analytical approximate procedure for a class of conservative single degree-of-freedom nonlinear oscillators with odd non-linearity is proposed. This technique is based on the generalized harmonic balance method in which analytical approximate solutions have rational forms. Unlike the classical harmonic…

The analytical approximate technique developed by Wu et al for conservative oscillators with odd nonlinearity is used to construct approximate frequency-amplitude relations and periodic solutions to the dynamically shifted oscillator. This nonlinear oscillator is described by an equation of motion…

A second-order modified rational harmonic balance method is used for approximately solve the nonlinear differential equation that governs the oscillations of a system typified as a mass attached to a stretched elastic wire for which the restoring force for this…