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An oscillator is a physical system characterized by periodic motion, such as a pendulum, tuning fork, or vibrating diatomic molecule.Mathematically speaking, the essential feature of an oscillator is that for some coordinate x of the system, a force whose magnitude depends on x will push x away from extreme values and back toward some central value x 0, causing x to oscillate between extremes.
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 maximal for zero ...
A period-doubling cascade is an infinite sequence of period-doubling bifurcations. Such cascades are one route by which dynamical systems can develop chaos. [1] In hydrodynamics, they are one of the possible routes to turbulence. [2] Period-halving bifurcations (L) leading to order, followed by period-doubling bifurcations (R) leading to chaos.
A molecular vibration is a periodic motion of the atoms of a molecule relative to each other, such that the center of mass of the molecule remains unchanged. The typical vibrational frequencies range from less than 10 13 Hz to approximately 10 14 Hz, corresponding to wavenumbers of approximately 300 to 3000 cm −1 and wavelengths of approximately 30 to 3 μm.
The Duffing equation (or Duffing oscillator), named after Georg Duffing (1861–1944), is a non-linear second-order differential equation used to model certain damped and driven oscillators.
An anharmonic oscillator (in contrast to a simple harmonic oscillator) is one in which the potential energy is not quadratic in the extension q (the generalized position which measures the deviation of the system from equilibrium). Such oscillators provide a complementary point of view on the equipartition theorem.
In the context of the quantum harmonic oscillator, one reinterprets the ladder operators as creation and annihilation operators, adding or subtracting fixed quanta of energy to the oscillator system. Creation/annihilation operators are different for bosons (integer spin) and fermions (half-integer spin).
The period of a mass attached to a pendulum of length l with gravitational acceleration is given by = This shows that the period of oscillation is independent of the amplitude and mass of the pendulum but not of the acceleration due to gravity, g {\displaystyle g} , therefore a pendulum of the same length on the Moon would swing more slowly due ...