Investigating damped harmonic oscillations

[Jens Noriʇzsɔɥ]

Hi Nate,

please check out Solid's post, phyphox.org/forums/showthread.php?tid=869&pid=1538#pid1538, and the reference therein. That perhaps answers some of your questions and shows an alternative setup idea.

Are you analyzing a mathematical or a physical pendulum? Could there be an overlaying rotation so that your smartphone's x-axis does not permanently correspond to the pendulum direction?