A Meter Stick Torsion Oscillator

This paper discusses a simple experiment in which torsion oscillations are set up in a pivoted meter stick that is balanced by a weight on one side of the axis of rotation and a stretched spring on the other side. By varying the torques applied to the mass-meter-stick-spring system, a non-conventional torsion oscillator can be studied and an expression for the effective torsion constant derived from application of Newton's second law. A rotary motion sensor serves as the axis about which the oscillating rotations occur.