GE T1 - Mechanics

OSCILLATIONS
Lecture 2
 DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION OF SHM

Normal, stretched, and compressed configurations of a horizontal spring-mass

system (Top to Bottom)

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• The restoring force exerted by the spring on the
body is directed to the left and is given by the
relation
• Since, the restoring force, F is proportional to the
displacement and is opposite in sign to the
displacement, the resulting motion is simple
harmonic (The relationship is linear only for small
values of displacement, x). Now, from Newton’s
second law of motion, we know that force
experienced by a body of mass m can be
expressed as a function of acceleration,

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• Therefore, in a spring-mass system, the force can
be written as

• The above equation is the differential equation of

SHM. k is the force constant (in the case of
spring-mass system, it is called the spring
constant) and has dimensions [MLT-2/L] = [MT-2].
• Therefore, the dimension of k/m is T-2, i.e. square
of reciprocal of time. We can replace k/m
by . Thus, we have

Here, ω is nothing but angular frequency.

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 Solution of the Differential Equation
of SHM

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• On integrating both sides,

• Boundary Conditions: at

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 This is the expression for velocity of a particle
executing SHM. The maximum velocity can be
obtained as (by putting x=0)

Now rearranging

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 Angular Frequency of SHM

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