GE T1 - Mechanics

OSCILLATIONS
Lecture 1
 Few Basic Terminology
• Displacement – Net change in location of a
moving body; in case of Simple Harmonic Motion
(SHM), it is measured from the equilibrium
position.
• Elasticity – Property of a material by virtue of
which it regains its shape after being deformed.
• Elastic Limit – The maximum limit up to which a
solid material can be stretched without a
permanently altering its length, shape and size.
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• Force – Anything that can change the state of
motion of an object.
• Frequency – The number of complete cycles per
second made by a vibrating object.
• Inertia – The tendency of a physical object to
remain still or to continue moving, unless a force
is applied to it.
• Stiffness – A measure of the force needed to
change the shape of an object.
• Tension – The force in an object that has been
stretched.
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• Velocity – Speed in a given direction.
• Wavelength – The distance between two
adjacent wave-crests.
• Weight – The force of gravity on an object. For
a mass, m, its weight = mg.
• Young’s Modulus of elasticity – Stress divided
by strain.

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 INTRODUCTION
Periodic Motion: Any motion which repeats itself
after regular interval is called periodic or
harmonic motion and the time interval after
which the motion is repeated (i.e. the position
and the velocity of the moving body is the same)
is called its time period.
Some examples:
• Motion of planets around the sun
• Motion of a piston inside a cylinder, used in
automobile engines
• Motion of a ball in a bowl
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Motion of planets around the sun Motion of a ball in a bowl

Motion of a piston inside a cylinder, used in

automobile engines

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Oscillatory Motion: If in case of periodic motion,
the body moves back and forth repeatedly about
a fixed position (called equilibrium or mean
position), the motion is said to be oscillatory or
vibratory.
Some examples:
• The motion of piston in an automobile engine
• motion of a ball in a bowl
• motion of needle of sewing machine
• the bob of a pendulum clock

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 Important Note
The motion of the earth around the sun or the
motion of the hands of the clock, are
examples of periodic motion, but they are not
oscillatory in nature.

Thus, all periodic motion may not be oscillatory

but all oscillatory motion will be periodic one.

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 Simple Harmonic Motion
An oscillating body is said to execute simple harmonic
motion (SHM) if the magnitude of the forces acting on
it is directly proportional to the magnitude of its
displacement from the mean position and the force
(called restoring force) is always directed towards the
mean position. Thus, see, SHM is actually a special case
of oscillatory motion.
Some examples:
• Motion of a simple pendulum
• a vibrating tuning fork
• a spring-mass system
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motion of a simple pendulum a vibrating tuning fork a spring-mass system

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 SHM can be defined in another ways:
• If the displacement vs. time curve of the
oscillating body is sinusoidal in nature, the
body is said to be executing SHM.
• If the potential energy of the oscillating body
is proportional to the square of its
displacement with reference to the mean
position, the body is said to be executing
SHM.

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 Basic Characteristics of SHM
• Amplitude: The magnitude of the initial displacement,
which is also the maximum displacement, is called the
amplitude (A) of oscillations.
The energy of the system executing SHM alternates
between kinetic (KE) and potential (PE) forms. At the
extremities of the oscillations, KE is zero as the velocity is
zero and PE is the maximum.
• Time Period: The time taken for one complete cycle of
oscillation is called time period (T).
This is the least time taken by an oscillating object to move
from a certain position and velocity back to the same
position and velocity.

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• Frequency: Frequency (ν) is the number of complete
oscillations executed per second and is the inverse of
the time period.
Instead of time period, many times frequency is used to
characterize SHM. It is expressed in cycles per second or simply
s-1 or hertz (Hz).
• Angular Frequency: Sometimes, instead of using the
term frequency, a term called angular frequency (ω), is
used, which is defined by

It is expressed in radian per second or simply rad.s-1 .

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