Abstract:
Consider the design of a speedometer (as used in a car, for example) using conventional mechanical linkages and a rotating magnet. We begin by modeling a linear speedometer. Later we introduce real-life nonlinearities. With the system linear, Laplace transforms make the solution of the problem easy and complete compared to solutions using differential equations. In the second case, we analyze several nonlinear effects. Although Laplace transforms are only accurate for linear systems, they can be used as is for several real-world nonlinearities, or they can be adapted for use with any generic nonlinearity by using a lookup table. Analysis and computations are done using MATLAB.
