| Applications and Skills |
|---|
| Qualitatively describing the energy changes |
| taking place during one cycle of an oscillation |
| Sketching and interpreting graphs of simple |
| harmonic motion examples |
| Understandings |
|---|
| Simple harmonic oscillations |
| Time period, frequency, amplitude, displacement and phase difference |
| Conditions for simple harmonic motion |
$$ \text{Booklet:}\\ T = \frac{1}{f} $$
Oscillations are vibrations that repeat themselves. They refer to back and forth in motion.
In all oscillations, $v = 0$ at the extremes and $v = v_{max}$ in the middle of the motion (pendulum).
A very common type of oscillations is isochronous.
A stroboscope (or strobe) is an instrument used to make cyclically moving object appear to be slow moving or stationary. This is used to study the motion of rotating, vibrating objects.
Stroboscope
Stroboscopic Image
Oscillation — Motion is repetitive and said to be periodic. The body moves back and forth around an equilibrium position.
A characteristic of oscillatory motion is the time taken to complete one full oscillation. This is called the period, $T$.
A full oscillation lasts for one period. At the end of a time interval equal to one period T, the system is in the same state as at the beginning of that time interval.
The amplitude of the oscillation is the maximum displacement from the equilibrium position.
A motion sensor can be used to monitor the position of a mass suspended from the end of a long spring. A data logger software processes the data to produce a graph showing the variation of displacement with time.
The pattern which repeats regularly is called the cycle of the motion and represents one full oscillation of the system. Thus, the time taken for the cycle to be completed is the time period, $T$and the maximum value of displacement is the amplitude $\bold{x_0}$.
The frequency, f, of an oscillation is the number of oscillations completed per unit of time.