Periodic Motion

Periodic motion:
Any motion that repeats itself in equal interval of time is called periodic motion. Such
as, motion of a pendulum, the earth’s motion around the sun.

Oscillatory motion:
If a particle in periodic motion moves back and forth over the same path we call the
motion oscillatory. The world is full of oscillatory motion.

Harmonic motion:
The displacement of a particle in periodic motion can always be expressed in terms of
sines and cosines. Because the term harmonic is applied to expressions containing
these functions, periodic motion is often called harmonic motion.

There are different types of harmonic motion. Two of them are simple harmonic motion
(SHM) and damped harmonic motion.

Simple harmonic motion:

The motion which occurs under the influence of an elastic restoring force proportional
to the displacement and in the absence of all friction is called the simple harmonic
motion (SHM).

Damped harmonic motion:

Many oscillatory bodies do not move back and forth between precisely fixed limits
because frictional forces dissipate the energy of the motion. We call such a motion
damped harmonic motion.

Elastic restoring force:

When a body is deformed, the deformation is proportional to the deforming force,
provided that the proportional limit is not exceeded (i.e. within the elastic limit).The
change may be an increase in length, or a decrease in length, or bending or a twisting
about its axis, or many other forms. The force may be interpreted as the force or
torque, or pressure or what ever may be producing the distortion. If we restrict to the
case of a push or a pull, where the distortion is simply the displacement of the point of
application of the force, the force and displacement are related by Hook’s law, then
Fx
 F  kx
where F is the force exerted on the spring, k is the force constant/ spring constant/
stiffness constant, and x is the displacement from the equilibrium position.

To illustrate the basic concept let us consider the figure below.

O
x
k
m

Figure: 1

Amrita Khan/Lecturer, SECS 1

PHY 111
A body of mass m can move without friction along a straight line. The body is attached
to one end of a spring, the other of which is held stationary. We describe the position
of the body with the coordinate x taking the origin (x = 0) as the equilibrium position,
where the spring is neither stretched nor compressed. When the body is displaced to
the right x is positive, the spring is stretched, and it exerts a force on the body towards
(the left –ve x direction), toward the equilibrium position. When it is displaced to the left,
x is –ve, the spring is compressed, and it exerts a force on the body toward the right
(the +ve x direction), again toward equilibrium. Thus the sign of the x- component of
the force on the body is always opposite to that of x itself. Then according to Hook’s
law
F  kx
Now, suppose the body is displaced to the right a distance A and released. The spring
exerts a restoring force, the body accelerated in the direction towards the equilibrium
position with increasing speed. The rate of increase (i.e. the acceleration) is not
constant, however since the accelerated force becomes smaller as the body
approaches the equilibrium position.

When the body reaches the center, the restoring force has decreased to zero, but
because of the velocity that has been acquired; the body overshoots the equilibrium
position and continues to move towards left. As soon as the equilibrium position is
passed, the restoring force again comes into play, directed now toward right. The
body’s speed thus decreases, at a rate that increases with increasing distance from O.
It therefore comes to rest at some point to the left of O, and repeats its motion in the
opposite direction. It can be seen that the motion is confined to a range ±A on either
side of the equilibrium, each to-end-fro movement taking place in the same interval of
time. If there were no loss of energy by friction, the motion would continue indefinitely,
once it had been started.

This type of motion which occurs under the influence of an elastic restoring force
proportional to the displacement and in the absence of all friction is called the simple
harmonic motion (SHM).

Time period:
The time period T of a harmonic motion is the time required to complete one round trip
of the motion i.e. one complete oscillation or cycle .
Unit: The SI unit of time period is second (s).

Frequency:
The frequency of the motion f is the number of complete vibrations/ oscillations per unit
time, i.e.
1
f 
T
Unit: The SI unit of frequency is the cycle per second or simply Hertz (Hz).

Displacement:
The position at which no net force acts on the particle is called its equilibrium position.
The displacement is the distance of the oscillatory particle from equilibrium position at
any instant.

Amrita Khan/Lecturer, SECS 2

PHY 111
Amplitude:
The amplitude is the maximum displacement of the particle from the equilibrium, i.e. A
(=│x│). The total range of the motion is therefore 2A.

Differential equation of simple harmonic motion:

Let us suppose a vibrating body of mass m at some instant when its displacement from
the equilibrium position is described by the coordinate x. Now, the force acting on the
particle in harmonic motion is restoring force because it always acts to accelerate the
particle in the direction of equilibrium. The restoring force can be written as
F  kx
where k is the force constant.
Now, from Newton’s second law
F  ma
 ma  kx
d 2x  d 2x 
m    
dt 2 
kx 0 a
dt 2 
d 2x k
 2  x0
dt m
2
d x
 2   2 x  0 …………. (1)
dt
where k/m is the angular frequency.
Equation (1) is known as the differential equation for simple harmonic motion.

Solution of differential equation of simple harmonic motion:

The solution of the differential equation of SHM can be represented as a function of
sine and cos. Let us suppose that the solution be
x  ACost    ………… (2)
where  is the phase.
Now let us verify whether this choice is correct or not. Differentiating equation (2) with
respect to t, we get
dx
 ASin(t   )
dt
d 2x
 2   2 ACos (t   )
dt
d 2x
 2   2 x
dt
d 2x
 2  2x  0
dt
Therefore the solution is correct.
The constant  is known as angular frequency. The constants A and  are still
undetermined and therefore completely arbitrary. This means that any choice of A and
 will satisfy equation (1), so that a large variety of motion is possible for the oscillator.
Actually this is a characteristic of a differential equation of motion; for such an equation
does not describe just a single motion but a group or family of motions which have
some features in common to all the allowed motion but Aand may differ among
them.

Amrita Khan/Lecturer, SECS 3

PHY 111
The simple pendulum:
If a point mass suspended by an inextensible weightless string in a uniform
gravitational field pulled to one side of its equilibrium position and released, and if it
moves back and forth and creates an oscillatory motion, then the device is called a
simple pendulum.

We may get a general equation to measure the time period of oscillation of simple
pendulum. The necessary condition for SHM is that the restoring force F shall be
directly proportional to the coordinate x and oppositely directed i.e.
F  x
 F   kx ……… (1)
Now, in case of simple pendulum the path of the bob is not straight line, but the arc of
a circle of radius l, i.e. the length of the supporting cord. The coordinate x refers to
distance measured along this arc.

Figure 2: Forces on the bob of a simple pendulum

If we resolve the weight into components, then

F  mgSin
The restoring force is therefore proportional not to  but to Sin. So this is not SHM.
However, if  is small then Sin ≈ . Then
F  mg
mg  x
F 
l
x ……… (2)   l 
Comparing equations (1) and (2), we can write
mg
k ……… (3)
l
Therefore, the restoring force is then proportional to the coordinate for small
displacements and the constant mg/l represents k.
Now, we know that the time period of SHM is
T
1

1

  2f 
f
2
2
T 


Amrita Khan/Lecturer, SECS 4

PHY 111
 m  k
 T  2    
k  m
Using equation (3), we get
m
T  2
mg
l
l
T  2 ………….. (4)
g
This is the expression for time period of oscillation for a simple pendulum.

Example 1: A 4kg of mass is attached to the end of a spring, pull it aside a distance of
0.02m, and release it. a) Find out the time period of the spring. b) Compute the
maximum acceleration. c) How much time is required for the body to move halfway in
to the center from its initial position? The spring constant is 100Nm-1.

Example 2: A 3kg of mass is attached to the end of a spring, pull it aside a distance of
0.05m, and release it. The force constant is 150Nm-1. a) Find out the frequency of
vibration. b) Compute the maximum velocity. c) Calculate the acceleration when it
moved one third in to the center from its initial position?

Problems for practice: problems related to simple pendulum

Amrita Khan/Lecturer, SECS 5

PHY 111