Simple Harmonic Oscillator
A simple harmonic oscillator is an oscillator that is neither driven nor damped. It consists of a mass m, which experiences a single force, F, which pulls the mass in the direction of the point x=0 and depends only on the mass's position x and a constant k. Balance of forces (Newton's second law) for the system is
Solving this differential equation, we find that the motion is described by the function
where
The motion is periodic, repeating itself in a sinusoidal fashion with constant amplitude, A. In addition to its amplitude, the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator is characterized by its period T, the time for a single oscillation or its frequency f = 1⁄T, the number of cycles per unit time. The position at a given time t also depends on the phase, φ, which determines the starting point on the sine wave. The period and frequency are determined by the size of the mass m and the force constant k, while the amplitude and phase are determined by the starting position and velocity.
The velocity and acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator oscillate with the same frequency as the position but with shifted phases. The velocity is maximum for zero displacement, while the acceleration is in the opposite direction as the displacement.
The potential energy stored in a simple harmonic oscillator at position x is
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