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Mechanical examples include pendulums (with small angles of displacement), masses connected to springs, and acoustical systems. Other analogous systems include electrical harmonic oscillators such as RLC circuits. The harmonic oscillator model is very important in physics, because any mass subject to a force in stable equilibrium acts as a ...
The quantum harmonic oscillator is the quantum-mechanical analog of the classical harmonic oscillator. Because an arbitrary smooth potential can usually be approximated as a harmonic potential at the vicinity of a stable equilibrium point , it is one of the most important model systems in quantum mechanics.
A Wilberforce pendulum can be designed by approximately equating the frequency of harmonic oscillations of the spring-mass oscillator f T, which is dependent on the spring constant k of the spring and the mass m of the system, and the frequency of the rotating oscillator f R, which is dependent on the moment of inertia I and the torsional ...
Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of oscillation include a swinging pendulum and alternating current. Oscillations can be used in physics to approximate complex interactions, such ...
Simple harmonic motion can serve as a mathematical model for a variety of motions, but is typified by the oscillation of a mass on a spring when it is subject to the linear elastic restoring force given by Hooke's law. The motion is sinusoidal in time and demonstrates a single resonant frequency.
In physics, complex harmonic motion is a complicated realm based on the simple harmonic motion.The word "complex" refers to different situations. Unlike simple harmonic motion, which is regardless of air resistance, friction, etc., complex harmonic motion often has additional forces to dissipate the initial energy and lessen the speed and amplitude of an oscillation until the energy of the ...
A simple example of a parametric oscillator is a child pumping a playground swing by periodically standing and squatting to increase the size of the swing's oscillations. [1] [2] [3] The child's motions vary the moment of inertia of the swing as a pendulum. The "pump" motions of the child must be at twice the frequency of the swing's oscillations.
Simple harmonic oscillator where the phase portrait is made up of ellipses centred at the origin, which is a fixed point. Damped harmonic motion , see animation (right). Van der Pol oscillator see picture (bottom right).