Real Spring-Mass System Modeling

Mark Anthony Tan John Jason Bibat Julz Heaven Bagolor

BSEE Student, BISU-MC BSEE Student, BISU-MC BSEE Student, BISU-MC
Tagbilaran City, Philppines 6300 Tagbilaran City, Philippines 6300 Tagbilaran City, Philippines 6300
markanthonytan1999@gmail.com bibatjohnjason@gmail.com julzheaven.bagolor@gmail.com

 displacement. When the system is displaced from its

Abstract— The purpose of this paper is to create a differential
equation that would represent a real spring mass system and also
to find a general solution that could be used to determine the
position of an object having mass m at a specified time. The
following conditions are set to ensure that the system behave in
simple harmonic motion, (i) the spring’s mass must be negligible
compared to the mass; (ii) the frequency of elastic oscillation must
not resonate with the frequency of pendular swinging; and (iii)
initial spring stretch must be strictly vertical. Summation of forces
in an equilibrium position has been carefully conducted. The rules
of integration and differentiation were carefully observed in
creating the model. The model that has been created has been
tested by a real-world set-up. The result shows an oscillation in its
graph, telling us that the formula we have derived is accurate and
precise, since real spring-mass system exhibits this characteristic.
Index Terms— oscillation; Real Spring-Mass System, simple
harmonic motion, Hooke's law
equilibrium position, a restoring force that obeys Hooke's law
tends to restore the system to equilibrium. (Hooke's law is a law
of physics that states that the force needed to extend or
compress a spring by some distance y scales linearly with
respect to that distance). In this paper, we study a real spring-
mass system. as seen in Figure 1. This simulation shows a single
mass on a spring, which is connected in an upper surface of a
room. A real spring mass system behaves as a simple harmonic
oscillator under specific conditions (i) the spring’s mass must
be negligible compared to the mass; (ii) the frequency of elastic
oscillation must not resonate with the frequency of pendular
swinging; and (iii) initial spring stretch must be strictly vertical.
These following conditions were considered in modeling the
system.

I. INTRODUCTION
The scientific method is an empirical method of acquiring
knowledge that has characterized the development of science
since at least the 17th century. It often starts with observation,
collecting data, finding rules inside. These rules are usually in
terms of mathematics and known as mathematical models. One
important in such models is the ordinary differential equations.
It describes relations between variables and their derivatives.
Such models appear everywhere. For instance, population
dynamics in ecology and biology, chemical reaction in
chemistry, economics, mechanics of particles in physics, etc.

In mechanics and physics, simple harmonics motion is

repetitive movement back and forth through an equilibrium or
central position, so that the maximum displacement on one side Figure 1. A real spring-mass system
is equal to the maximum displacement on the other side. The
time interval of each complete vibration is the same, and the III. SYSTEM MODELS
force responsible for the motion is always directed toward the
The equation of the spring-mass oscillator was derived from
equilibrium position and is directly proportional to the distance
Figure 1, were F (Restoring Force) is equal to the F0 (Applied
from it. A mass m tied to a spring of spring constant k exhibits
Force) at equilibrium position Y=0.
simple harmonic motion in closed space.

II. REAL SPRING-MASS SYSTEM +↑ ∑𝑭𝒚 = 𝟎 (1)

Simple harmonic motion is a type of periodic motion or
oscillation where the restoring force is directly proportional to F- F0 = 0 (2)
the displacement and acts in the direction opposite to that of
thus F= F0, IV. VALIDATION OF MODEL CHARACTERISTIC
𝒎𝒂 = -ky (3) Model Application
An object weighing 2 pounds (lb.) stretches a spring 6 inches.
since acceleration a is the second derivative of a function
The spring is released from the equilibrium position with an
with respect to time, therefore:
upward velocity of 16 ft/sec. Find the positions of the mass for
every second starting from the time it was released up to 10
𝒅𝟐 𝒚
𝒎 𝒅𝒕𝟐 = −𝒌𝒚 (4) seconds.

𝒅𝟐 𝒚 −𝒌
= y (5)
𝒅𝒕𝟐 𝒎

Thus, the differential equation representing the spring-mass

system is,

𝒅𝟐 𝒚 𝒌
+ y=0 (6)
𝒅𝒕𝟐 𝒎

Finding the general solution of the equation by the

Homogenous Equation with Constant Coefficients.
Figure 2. Problem Illustration
Solution:
𝒅𝟐 𝒚 𝒌
+𝒎 𝐲 = 𝟎 (7) Among the given of the problem, the spring constant k is not
𝒅𝒕𝟐
included, since it is vital key to the problem, we need to find it
𝒌 first.
𝒓𝟐 + 𝒎 = 𝟎 (8)
At equilibrium point we have,
−𝒌
𝒓𝟐 = (9) ma=-ky (2)
𝒎
𝟏
2 lb.=-k ( 𝒇𝒕. ) (17)
𝒌 𝒌 𝟐
𝒓𝟏 = 𝒊√𝒎 (10) 𝒓𝟐 = −𝒊√𝒎 (11) k=-4 (18)
Since k, being the spring constant, is always a positive
number, we have,
𝒌 k=4 (19)
Let 𝝎 = √𝒎 (12)

We know that weight W is equals the product of mass m and

𝒚(𝒕) = 𝑪𝟏 𝒆 𝒊𝝎𝒕
+ 𝑪𝟐 𝒆 −𝒊𝝎𝒕
(13) the acceleration due to the g. In English units, the acceleration
due to gravity is 32 ft/sec2,

𝒚(𝒕) = 𝑪𝟏 (𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 + 𝒊 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕)+ 𝑪𝟐 (𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 − 𝒊 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕) (14) W=mg (20)
2
2 lb. = m(32ft/sec ) (21)
𝒚(𝒕) = (𝑪𝟏 + 𝑪𝟐 ) 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 + 𝒊(𝑪𝟏 − 𝑪𝟐 ) 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕 (15) m=
𝟏
(22)
𝟏𝟔

Now we can get 𝛚,

The general solution of finding the position y of the object
having mass m at a specified time t is,
𝒌
𝝎= √ (𝟏𝟐)
𝒎

𝒚(𝒕) = 𝑪𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 + 𝑪𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕 (16)

𝟒 ∗ 𝟏𝟔
𝛚=√ (𝟐𝟑)
𝟏
 𝛚=𝟖 (24) V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Model Application
The differential equation representing the problem’s spring-
Figure 3. Position vs. Time Graph shows that the object is in
mass system would be,
periodic motion. The object has been moving repetitively
𝒅𝟐 𝒚 upwards and downwards through an equilibrium with
𝒅𝒕𝟐
+ 𝟖y =0 (25) maximum displacement on each side of 2ft.
Substituting the value of 𝛚 to the general formula,

𝒚(𝒕) = 𝑪𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 + 𝑪𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕 (16)

𝒚(𝒕) = 𝑪𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝟖𝒕 + 𝑪𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟖𝒕 (26)
The mass was released from the equilibrium position, thus,

y (0) =0 (27)

0=𝑪𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝟖(𝟎) + 𝑪𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟖(𝟎) (28)

𝑪𝟏 = 𝟎 (29)

It has an upward velocity of 16 ft/sec so,

y’ (0) = -16 (30)

y’(t)=−𝝎𝑪𝟏 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝝎𝒕 + 𝝎𝑪𝟐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝝎𝒕 (31)

-16=−𝟖𝑪𝟏 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟖(𝟎) + 𝟖𝑪𝟐 𝐜𝐨𝐬 𝟖(𝟎) (32)

𝑪𝟐 = −𝟐 (33)

Finally, the particular solution for the position of the mass at

Figure 3. Position vs. Time Graph
a specified time in this problem would be,

𝒚(𝒕) = −𝟐 𝐬𝐢𝐧 𝟖𝒕 (34) VI. CONCLUSION

We could now get the position of the object for every second
starting from the time it was released up to 10 seconds.
Time t (seconds) y(t)=-2sin8t
0 0
1 -1.978
2 0.5758
3 1.811
4 -1.102
5 -1.49
6 1.5365
7 1.0431
8 -1.84
9 -0.507
10 1.9877
The model application results show that the object has
been moving in simple harmonic motion. Since, spring-mass
system is an example of system that exhibits this type of
motion, we could conclude that the differential equation
representing the system and the general formula for finding
the position of the mass at specified time is functional.
REFERENCES
[1] L. Chern, Mathematical Modeling and Ordinary Differential Equations,
2016, pp.1-2.
[2] S. Holzner, Differential Equations for Dummies, 2008, pp.145-149.
[3] J. Walker, Principles of Physics, 9th ed., 2011, pp-230-234
[4] S.I Hayek, Mechanical Vibration and Damping, 2003, pp.128-136
[5] P. Tipler, Physics for Scientists and Engineers: Vol. 1, 4th ed, 1998, pp.60-
62
[6] R.C Hibbeler, Engineering Mechanics Dynamics, 12th ed, 2010, pp. 20-23
[7] T.S. Peterson, Calculus with Analytic Geometry, 1960, pp.517-520

Table 1. Position y of the object at specified time t

 APPENDIX A

MARK ANTHONY TAN

 Model Application, Proofreading, Making of Figures
and Tables, Make and Finalized Report
JOHN JASON BIBAT
 Give inputs for documentation
JULZ HEAVEN BAGOLOR
 Give inputs for documentation
As a Group
 Everyone helps in analyzing the system and in creating
the differential equation that would represent it.