Simple harmonic

motion

In physics, simple harmonic motion (SHM) is a periodic motion that is neither driven
nor damped. An object in simple harmonic motion experiences a net force which obeys
Hooke's law; that is, the force is directly proportional to the displacement from the
equilibrium position and acts in the opposite direction of the displacement.

A simple harmonic oscillator is a system which undergoes simple harmonic motion. The
oscillator oscillates about an equilibrium position (or mean position) between two
extreme positions of maximum displacement in a periodic manner. Mathematically, the
motion of the oscillator can be described by means of a sinusoidal function such that the
displacement x from the equilibrium position is given by:

where A is the amplitude, ω is the angular frequency such that ω = 2πf where f is the
frequency in units of hertz, and φ is the phase which is the elapsed fraction of wave cycle
in radians.

The angular frequency of the motion is determined by the intrinsic properties of the
system (often the mass of the object and the force constant), while the amplitude and
phase are determined by the initial conditions (displacement and velocity) of the system.
The kinetic and potential energies of the system are in turn determined by both intrinsic
properties and initial conditions.

Simple harmonic motion. In this moving graph, the vertical axis represents the coordinate
of the particle (x in the equation), and the horizontal axis represents time (t).

Simple harmonic motion can serve as a mathematical model of a variety of motions, such
as the oscillation of a spring. Additionally, other phenomena can be approximated by
simple harmonic motion, including the motion of a simple pendulum and molecular
vibration.

Simple harmonic motion provides the basis of the characterization of more complicated
motions through the techniques of Fourier analysis.

Introduction

Simple harmonic motion shown both in real space and phase space. The orbit is periodic.
(Here the velocity and position axes have been reversed from the standard convention in
order to align the two diagrams)

An idealized mass-spring system is typically a simple harmonic oscillator. A mass is

attached to one end of the spring, and the other end of the spring is connected to a rigid
support such as a wall. If the system is left at rest at the equilibrium position then there is
no net force acting on the mass. However, if the mass is displaced from the equilibrium
position, a restoring elastic force which obeys Hooke's law is exerted by the spring.

Mathematically, the restoring force F is given by

where F is the restoring elastic force exerted by the spring (in SI units: N), k is the spring
constant (N·m−1), and x is the displacement from the equilibrium position (in m).

Every simple harmonic oscillator exhibits a characteristic feature.

• When the system is displaced from equilibrium position, a restoring force which
obeys Hooke's law exists and tend to restore the system to its equilibrium.
Once the mass is displaced from its equilibrium position, it experiences a net restoring
force. Hence, it accelerates and starts going back to the equilibrium position. When the
mass moves closer to the equilibrium position, the restoring force decreases. At the
equilibrium position, the net restoring force vanishes. However, at x = 0, the momentum
of the mass does not vanish due to the impulse of the restoring force that has acted on it.
Therefore, the mass shoots past the equilibrium position compressing the spring. A net
restoring force then tends to slow it down, until its velocity vanishes, whereby it will
attempt to reach equilibrium position again.

As long as the system has no energy loss, the mass will continue to oscillate. Thus, the
simple harmonic motion is known as one of the periodic motions.

Dynamics of simple harmonic motion

For one-dimensional simple harmonic motion, the equation of motion, which is a second-
order linear ordinary differential equation with constant coefficients, could be obtained
by means of Newton's second law and Hooke's law.

where m is the inertial mass of the oscillating body, x is its displacement from the
equilibrium (or mean) position, and k is the spring constant constant.

Solving the differential equation above, a solution which is a sinusoidal function is

obtained.

where

In the solution, c1 and c2 are two constants determined by the initial conditions, and the
origin is set to be the equilibrium position.[A] Each of these constants carries a physical
meaning of the motion: A is the amplitude (maximum displacement from the equilibrium
position) , ω = 2πf is the angular frequency, and φ is the phase.[B]
Position, velocity and acceleration of a harmonic oscillator

Using the techniques of differential calculus, the velocity and acceleration as a function
of time can be found:

Position, velocity and acceleration of a SHM as phasors

Acceleration can also be expressed as a function of displacement:

Then since ω = 2πf,

and since T = 1/f where T is the time period,

These equations demonstrate that the simple harmonic motion is isochronous (the period
and frequency are independent of the amplitude and the initial phase of the motion).

Energy of simple harmonic motion

The kinetic energy K of the system at time t is

and the potential energy is

The total mechanical energy of the system therefore has the constant value

Examples
An undamped spring-mass system undergoes simple harmonic motion.

The following physical systems are some examples of simple harmonic oscillator.

Mass on a spring

A mass m attached to a spring of spring constant k exhibits simple harmonic motion in

space. The equation

shows that the period of oscillation is independent of both the amplitude and gravitational
acceleration.

Uniform circular motion

Simple harmonic motion can in some cases be considered to be the one-dimensional

projection of uniform circular motion. If an object moves with angular velocity ω around
a circle of radius r centered at the origin of the x-y plane, then its motion along each
coordinate is simple harmonic motion with amplitude r and angular frequency ω.

Mass on a simple pendulum

The motion of an undamped Pendulum approximates to simple harmonic motion if the
amplitude is very small relative to the length of the rod.

In the small-angle approximation, the motion of a simple pendulum is approximated by

simple harmonic motion. The period of a mass attached to a string of length ℓ with
gravitational acceleration g is given by

This shows that the period of oscillation is independent of the amplitude and mass of the
pendulum but not the acceleration due to gravity (g), therefore a pendulum of the same
length on the Moon would swing more slowly due to the Moon's lower gravitational
acceleration.

This approximation is accurate only in small angles because of the expression for angular
acceleration being proportional to the sine of position:

where I is the moment of inertia; in this case I = m ℓ 2. When θ is small, sin θ ≈ θ and
therefore the expression becomes
which makes angular acceleration directly proportional to θ, satisfying the definition of
simple harmonic motion.