A generalized perturbed pendulum

The simple pendulum is a paradigm in the study of oscillations and other phenomena in physics and nonlinear dynamics. This explains why it has deserved much attention, from many viewpoints, for a long time. Here, we attempt to describe what we call a generalized perturbed pendulum, which comprises, in a single model, many known situations related to pendula, including different forcing and nonlinear damping terms. Melnikov analysis is applied to this model, with the result of general formulae for the appearance of chaotic motions that incorporate several particular cases. In this sense, we give a unified view of the pendulum.