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Assignment 5

Q1: Consider two point masses M and m connected via two springs (neglect gravity) of spring constant k0 . They are
also connected to two rigid walls by springs of spring constant k. What are the frequencies of normal modes of the
system?

3l

Q2: Consider some N number of masses, each of mass m are connected in a chain via springs of spring-constant k
and equilibrium length a. Consider that xi is the displacement of the ith mass from its equilibrium position.
(a) What is the total kinetic energy of the system? Understand that the change of length of the spring that connects
ith and i + 1th mass is xi+1 − xi . Now, what is the net potential energy of the system? Write down the Lagrangian
of the system and write down the EL equation for the variable xi .
(b) Define mass per unit length µ = m/a, and Y = ka (Y is actually the Young’s modulus of the system). Our plan
is to take a continuum limit, that is with a → 0 and N → ∞, but with the total length L = N a fixed. In this limit,
for any point x in the chain, we define the displacement from the equilibrium position to be η(x, t). Then, we can
replace

∂ 2 η 
  
xi+1 − xi ∂η  xi − xi−1 ∂η 
ẍi → , → , →
∂t2 ui a ∂x ui +a a ∂x ui

in the EL equations,
 where ui s are the equilibrium positions of the ith mass. Finally take a Taylor expansion of the
function ∂η to arrive at the wave equation

∂t 
ui +a

∂2η µ ∂2η
− =0
∂x2 Y ∂t2
which is what we call a wave equation!
Solution of this equation describe a wave. For example, a possible solution is η(x, t) = A cos(x − vt), with v = µ/Y
is the velocity of the wave!
Q3: (a) Consider a damped oscillator given by the equation of motion

ẍ = −γ ẋ − ω 2 x,
p
where ω = k/m. If we write the energy of the oscillator in the form of

1 1
E= mẋ2 + kx2 ,
2 2
then show that the energy decreases in time and the rate is proportional to the square of the velocity.
(b) Consider the same oscillator and that it is an under-damped oscillator. We can write a solution of the form (from
lecture notes),

x = Ae−γt/2 cos(Ωt + ϕ0 ).

Change a variable to y = ẋ + γx/2, to show that

x2 y2
+ = 1,
ρ2 Ω2 ρ 2

where ρ = Ae−γt/2 . What does this look like in the x − y plane for small γ and at γ → 0 limit.