Magnetic impulse damping of conducting pendulums

Two magnetically damped pendulums, namely a horizontal magnet on a pendulum swinging past a narrow vertical conducting strip and a conducting strip pendulum swinging past a fixed horizontal magnet have been studied. Both pendulums are subject to an impulse due to induced eddy currents. The impulse is independent of the pendulum amplitude and makes the amplitude decrease linearly with time, similar to that observed with Coulomb frictional damping. The experiment and its analysis are accessible to intermediate-level students.