Harmonic Oscillator - Driven Harmonic Oscillators

Driven Harmonic Oscillators

Driven harmonic oscillators are damped oscillators further affected by an externally applied force F(t).

Newton's second law takes the form

It is usually rewritten into the form

This equation can be solved exactly for any driving force using the solutions z(t) to the unforced equation, which satisfy

and which can be expressed as damped sinusoidal oscillations,

in the case where ζ ≤ 1. The amplitude A and phase φ determine the behavior needed to match the initial conditions.

Read more about this topic:  Harmonic Oscillator

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