Homework 1

ASTR/GEOL/PHYS 6610
Earth and Planetary Physics 1
Due: Tuesday September 4, 2018

Readings: Taylor, Classical Mechanics, Ch. 5. Pujol, Ch. 11.2. The appendix in the class notes:

PHYS6610 Notes mhr 8 22 2018.pdf

Chapter 5 from Taylor’s book and the class notes can be found on D2L.

1. Substituting numbers.
A simple (undamped) harmonic oscillator consists of a 0.1 kg mass attached to a spring with force
constant of 10 N/m. The mass is displaced 0.03 m and released from rest. These numbers apply only
to this problem. Put all answers in SI (i.e., mks) units.
(a) What is the natural frequency ω0 and period τ0 of the oscillator?
(b) What is the total energy of the oscillator?
(c) What is the maximum speed of the mass as it oscillates?
Now, consider the motion of this oscillator in a resisting medium. After oscillating for one period,
the amplitude of the oscillator decreases to half the initial value. (Read this as x(t + τ0 ) = x(t)/2.)
(d) Assuming that the oscillator is underdamped, what is the value of the damping parameter
β?
(e) How does the frequency of the damped oscillator, ω1 , compare with the frequency of the
undamped oscillator? To answer compute (ω0 − ω1 )/ω0 .
(f) What is the Q of this damped oscillator? (Hint: See Taylor eqn (5.77).)
Now assume that the damped oscillator is subjected to sinusoidal forcing at frequency ω = ω0 − β.
(g) What is the phase lag δ at which the oscillator’s motion lags behind the driving force? Hint:
See Taylor equation (5.65) or (5.79). Express your answer in degree rather than radians.

2. Applying initial conditions to the unforced, weakly damped harmonic oscillator.

The unforced, damped harmonic oscillator equation:

ẍ + 2β ẋ + ω02 x = 0. (1)

The following is a solution of this equation when it is underdamped (ω02 > β 2 ):

x(t) = Ae−βt cos(ω1 t + φ), (2)

where ω12 = ω02 − β 2 .

(a) Find A and φ in terms of displacement and velocity at time t = 0, x0 = x(0) and v0 = v(0).
(b) Show that in the absence of damping (β = 0), if v0 = 0, then A = x0 and φ = 0.
(c) Again assume that v0 = 0, but now let there be damping (β 6= 0). Show that A > x0 . How
can this be? How can the constant A be greater than the initial displacement? Does this make sense?

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3. Submerged oscillator.
A spherical ball is attached to a spring underwater and is set to oscillate under the action of the
spring. The radius of the ball is r = 2.65 × 10−3 m, its mass is m = 5 × 10−4 kg, the spring constant
k = 5 × 10−2 N/m, and the viscosity of water is η = 10−3 Ns/m2 .
(a) Calculate the Q of the oscillator.
(b) Find the number of oscillations that the ball will execute in the time it takes for the amplitude
of the oscillations to fall to 1/e of its initial value.
Hint: Stokes’ law for moving spherical objects in a viscous medium can be used to find the resisting
force (or Stokes’ drag) to which the water subjects the ball. You can look up Stokes’ law on Wikipedia.

4. Resonance.
Consider an underdamped oscillator with sinusoidal forcing:

ẍ + 2β ẋ + ω02 x = f (t) (3)

where f (t) is the driving force F (t) divided by m. Here we follow Taylor and consider f (t) = f0 cos(ωt)
(eqn 5.57) where ω is the driving frequency.
Show that the amplitude A of the response, where A2 is given by equation (5.71) in Taylor, is
maximum at frequency ωR = (ω02 − 2β 2 )1/2 . This is Taylor’s question 5.40 on p.212. Here you’re
asked to derive a well known characteristics of an underdamped oscillator under sinusoidal forcing,
namely that the so-called “resonance frequency”, or the frequency at which the maximum amplitude
of the driven oscillator occurs, is approximately ωR .
Hint: It’s probably easier if you solve an equivalent problem that amounts to finding ω that minimizes
(f0 /A)2 . This makes the derivatives easier.

5. Fourier transform of a decaying exponential.

Consider the weakly damped, unforced harmonic oscillator (eqn (1) above), but for simplicity write
its solution in complex exponential form as follows:

x(t) = e−βt eiω1 t . (4)

Taking the Fourier Transform, converts a function of time (x(t) where t ∈ [0, ∞)) to a function of
frequency as follows:
Z ∞
F (x(t)) ≡ x(ω) = x(t)e−iωt dt (5)
0

The power spectrum of x(t) is defined as follows:

P (x(t)) ≡ x(ω)x∗ (ω), (6)

where ∗ denotes complex conjugation.

(a) For x(t) defined by equation (4), show that:
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P (x(t)) = (7)
β2 + (ω − ω1 )2
This function is known as a “Lorentzian”.
(b) Show that the Full Width at Half Max of P (x(t)) is:

F W HM = 2β. (8)

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 Recall that the FWHM is the width across the Lorentzian at half the peak power, which occurs when
ω = ω1 .
(c) Instead of equation (4), now consider the power spectrum of the following real valued function:

x(t) = e−βt cos(ω1 t). (9)

How would the power spectrum of this real valued function change compared to equation (7)? (Hint:
Think about how cosine is defined in terms of exponentials. You don’t need to do any more calcula-
tions. You can simply write down the solution.)

6. Measuring Q of a damped oscillator.

In this assignment, you have considered a number of ways damping, which seismologists think of in
terms of Q, can affect an oscillator.
(a) Identify and explain three ways you might be able to measure the Q of an oscillating system?
(b) For each of those ways discuss whether you could use the method to measure the Q of the
Earth or some part of it.