PHY4A

Simple Harmonic motion

Conditions
A body will oscillate with simple harmonic motion if the resorting force acting on it (pulling the body back towards a rest position) is directly proportional to the bodys displacement. A restoring force results in an acceleration which is in the opposite direction to the bodys displacement. The conditions for simple harmonic motion are summarized by: a -x Where a is acceleration and x is displacement. The minus sign shows that the acceleration is in the opposite direction to the displacement vector.

Simple harmonic motion and circular motion

An object on a turntable rotating with constant speed will have a constant angular velocity, . When viewed from the side the object moves in a straight line with simple harmonic motion where: = 2/T = 2f T is the time for one oscillation and f is the frequency or number of oscillations per second.

Phase and phase difference

Different points on the rim of a spinning wheel are said to be out of step out of phase. The phase difference between any 2 points is the angle between them. When the term phase is applied to waves and oscillations more generally, one complete oscillation is taken to be equivalent to one rotation or 2 radians and phase differences are measured in radians.

PHY4A

Graphs and Equations for simple harmonic motion

The equations and graphs work for continuous, undamped simple harmonic motion. Damping complicates things by reducing the amplitude over time. The oscillator must already br oscillating before time t=0

Displacement against time The displacement x of a particle vibrating with shm is given by: x = A sin t Velocity against time Velocity is the rate of increase in displacement. At any instant it is the gradient of a displacement time graph: v = A cos t Maximum velocity depends on both amplitude and angular velocity and since the maximum value a cosine can have is 1: v(max) = A Maximum velocity is achieved when displacement x = 0, that is when the oscillator is at its mean position. Acceleration against time Acceleration is rate of increase in velocity. At any instant it is the gradient of a velocity- time graph: a = - A sin t but x = A sin t so a = - x Maximum acceleration is achieved at maximum displacement; i.e. the displacement is equal to the amplitude and the velocity is zero.