Consider a mass m held in an equilibrium position by springs, as shown in Figure 2A. The mass may be perturbed by displacing it to the right or left. If x is the displacement of the mass from equilibrium (Figure 2B), the springs exert a force F proportional to x, such thatwhere k is a constant that depends on the stiffness of the springs. Equation (10) is called Hooke’s law, and the force is called the spring force. If x is positive (displacement to the right), the resulting force is negative (to the left), and vice versa. In other words, the spring force always acts so as to restore mass back toward its equilibrium position. Moreover, the force will produce an acceleration along the x direction given by a = d ² x/dt ². Thus, Newton’s second law, F = ma, is applied to this case by substituting −kx for F and d ² x/dt ² for a, giving −kx = m(d ² x/dt ²). Transposing and dividing by m yields the equation

Equation (11) gives the derivative—in this case the second derivative—of a quantity x in terms of the quantity itself. Such an equation is called a differential equation, meaning an equation containing derivatives. Much of the ordinary, day-to-day work of theoretical physics consists of solving differential equations. The question is, given equation (11), how does x depend on time?

The answer is suggested by experience. If the mass is displaced and released, it will oscillate back and forth about its equilibrium position. That is, x should be an oscillating function of t, such as a sine wave or a cosine wave. For example, x might obey a behaviour such as

Equation (12) describes the behaviour sketched graphically in Figure 3. The mass is initially displaced a distance x = A and released at time t = 0. As time goes on, the mass oscillates from A to −A and back to A again in the time it takes ωt to advance by 2π. This time is called T, the period of oscillation, so that ωT = 2π, or T = 2π/ω. The reciprocal of the period, or the frequency f, in oscillations per second, is given by f = 1/T = ω/2π. The quantity ω is called the angular frequency and is expressed in radians per second.

The choice of equation (12) as a possible kind of behaviour satisfying the differential equation (11) can be tested by substituting it into equation (11). The first derivative of x with respect to t is

Differentiating a second time gives

Equation (14) is the same as equation (11) if

Thus, subject to this condition, equation (12) is a correct solution to the differential equation. There are other possible correct guesses (e.g., x = A sin ωt) that differ from this one only in whether the mass is at rest or in motion at the instant t = 0.

The mass, as has been shown, oscillates from A to −A and back again. The speed, given by dx/dt, equation (13), is zero at A and −A, but has its maximum magnitude, equal to ωA, when x is equal to zero. Physically, after the mass is displaced from equilibrium a distance A to the right, the restoring force F pushes the mass back toward its equilibrium position, causing it to accelerate to the left. When it reaches equilibrium, there is no force acting on it at that instant, but it is moving at speed ωA, and its inertia takes it past the equilibrium position. Before it is stopped it reaches position −A, and by this time there is a force acting on it again, pushing it back toward equilibrium.

The whole process, known as simple harmonic motion, repeats itself endlessly with a frequency given by equation (15). Equation (15) means that the stiffer the springs (i.e., the larger k), the higher the frequency (the faster the oscillations). Making the mass greater has exactly the opposite effect, slowing things down.

One of the most important features of harmonic motion is the fact that the frequency of the motion, ω (or f), depends only on the mass and the stiffness of the spring. It does not depend on the amplitude A of the motion. If the amplitude is increased, the mass moves faster, but the time required for a complete round trip remains the same. This fact has profound consequences, governing the nature of music and the principle of accurate timekeeping.

The potential energy of a harmonic oscillator, equal to the work an outside agent must do to push the mass from zero to x, is U = 1/2 kx ². Thus, the total initial energy in the situation described above is 1/2 kA ²; and since the kinetic energy is always 1/2 mv ², when the mass is at any point x in the oscillation,

Equation (16) plays exactly the role for harmonic oscillators that equation (8) does for falling bodies.

It is quite generally true that harmonic oscillations result from disturbing any body or structure from a state of stable mechanical equilibrium. To understand this point, a brief discussion of stability is useful.

Consider a bowl with a marble resting inside, then consider a second, inverted bowl with a marble balanced on top. In both cases, the net force on the marble is zero. The marbles are thus in mechanical equilibrium. However, a small disturbance in the position of the marble balanced on top of the inverted bowl will cause it to roll away and not return. In such a case, the equilibrium is said to be unstable. Conversely, if the marble inside the first bowl is disturbed, gravity acts to push it back toward the bottom of the bowl. The marble inside the bowl (like the mass held by springs in Figure 2A) is an example of a body in stable equilibrium. If it is disturbed slightly, it executes harmonic oscillations around the bottom of the bowl rather than rolling away.

This argument may be generalized by a simple mathematical argument. Consider a body or structure in mechanical equilibrium, which, when disturbed by a small amount x, finds a force acting on it that is a function of x, F(x). For small x, such a function may be written generally as a power series in x; i.e.,where F(0) is the value of F(x) when x = (0), and a and b are constants, independent of x, determined by the nature of the system. The statement that the body is in mechanical equilibrium means that F(0) = 0, so that no force is acting on the body when it is undisturbed. Since x is small, x ² is much smaller; thus, the term bx ² and all higher powers may be disregarded. This leaves F(x) = ax. Now, if a is positive, a disturbance produces a force in the same direction as the disturbance. This was the case when the marble was balanced on top of the inverted bowl. It describes unstable equilibrium. For the system to be stable, a must be negative. Thus, if a = −k, where k is some positive constant, equation (17) becomes F(x) = −kx, which is simply Hooke’s law, equation (10). As has been described above, any system obeying Hooke’s law is a harmonic oscillator.

The generality of this argument accounts for the fact that harmonic oscillators are abundantly observed in common experience. For example, any rigid structure will oscillate at many different harmonic frequencies corresponding to different possible distortions of its equilibrium shape. In addition, music may be produced either by disturbing the equilibrium of a stretched wire or fibre (as in the piano and violin), a stretched membrane (e.g., drums), or a rigid bar (the triangle and the xylophone) or by disturbing the density of an enclosed column of air (as in the trumpet and organ). While a fluid such as air is not rigid, its density is an example of a stable system that obeys Hooke’s law and may therefore be set into harmonic oscillations.

All music would be quite different from what it is were it not for the general property of harmonic oscillators that the frequency is independent of the amplitude. Thus, instruments yield the same note (frequency) regardless of how loudly they are played (amplitude), and, equally important, the same note persists as the vibrations die away. This same property of harmonic oscillators is the underlying principle of all accurate timekeeping.

The first precise timekeeping mechanism, whose principles of motion were discovered by Galileo, was the simple pendulum (see below). The accuracy of modern timekeeping has been improved dramatically by the introduction of tiny quartz crystals, whose harmonic oscillations generate electrical signals that may be incorporated into miniaturized circuits in clocks and wristwatches. All harmonic oscillators are natural timekeeping devices because they oscillate at intrinsic natural frequencies independent of amplitude. A given number of complete cycles always corresponds to the same elapsed time. Quartz crystal oscillators make more accurate clocks than pendulums do principally because they oscillate many more times per second.

Damped and forced oscillations

The simple harmonic oscillations discussed above continue forever, at constant amplitude, oscillating as shown in Figure 3 between A and −A. Common experience indicates that real oscillators behave somewhat differently, however. Harmonic oscillations tend to die away as time goes on. This behaviour, called damping of the oscillations, is produced by forces such as friction and viscosity. These forces are known collectively as dissipative forces because they tend to dissipate the potential and kinetic energies of macroscopic bodies into the energy of the chaotic motion of atoms and molecules known as heat.

Friction and viscosity are complicated phenomena whose effects cannot be represented accurately by a general equation. However, for slowly moving bodies, the dissipative forces may be represented by

where v is the speed of the body and γ is a constant coefficient, independent of dynamic quantities such as speed or displacement. Equation (18) is most easily understood by an argument analogous to that applied to equation (17) above. F _d is written as a sum of powers of v, or F _d (v) = F _d (0) + av + bv ² + · · · . When the body is at rest (v = 0), no dissipative force is expected because, if there were one, it might set the body into motion. Thus, F _d (0) = 0. The next term must be negative since dissipative forces always resist the motion. Thus, a = −γ where γ is positive. Since v ² has the same sign regardless of the direction of the motion, b must equal 0 lest it sometimes contribute a dissipative force in the same direction as the motion. The next term is proportional to v ³, and it and all subsequent terms may be neglected if v is sufficiently small. So, as in equation (17) the power series is reduced to a single term, in this case F _d = −γv.

To find the effect of a dissipative force on a harmonic oscillator, a new differential equation must be solved. The net force, or mass times acceleration, written as md ² x/dt ², is set equal to the sum of the Hooke’s law force, −kx, and the dissipative force, −γv = −γdx/dt. Dividing by m yields

The general solution to equation (19) is given in the form x = Ce ^−γt/2m cos(ωt + θ₀), where C and θ₀ are arbitrary constants determined by the initial conditions. This motion, for the case in which θ₀ = 0, is illustrated in Figure 4. As expected, the harmonic oscillations die out with time. The amplitude of the oscillations is bounded by an exponentially decreasing function of time (the dashed curves). The characteristic decay time (after which the oscillations are smaller by 1/e, where e is the base of the natural logarithms e = 2.718 . . . ) is equal to 2m/γ. The frequency of the oscillations is given by

Importantly, this frequency does not change as the oscillations decay.

Equation (20) shows that it is possible, by proper choice of γ, to turn a harmonic oscillator into a system that does not oscillate at all—that is, a system whose natural frequency is ω = 0. Such a system is said to be critically damped. For example, the springs that suspend the body of an automobile cause it to be a natural harmonic oscillator. The shock absorbers of the auto are devices that seek to add just enough dissipative force to make the assembly critically damped. In this way, the passengers need not go through numerous oscillations after each bump in the road.

A simple disturbance can set a harmonic oscillator into motion. Repeated disturbances can increase the amplitude of the oscillations if they are applied in synchrony with the natural frequency. Even a very small disturbance, repeated periodically at just the right frequency, can cause a very large amplitude motion to build up. This phenomenon is known as resonance.

Periodically forced oscillations may be represented mathematically by adding a term of the form a ₀ sin ωt to the right-hand side of equation (19). This term describes a force applied at frequency ω, with amplitude ma ₀. The result of applying such a force is to create a kind of motion that does not need to decay with time, since the energy lost to dissipative processes is replaced, over the course of each cycle, by the driving force. The amplitude of the motion depends on how close the driving frequency ω is to the natural frequency ω₀ of the oscillator. Interestingly, even though dissipation is present, ω₀ is not given by equation (20) but rather by equation (15): ω² ₀ = k/m. In a graph of the amplitude of the steady state motion (i.e., long after the driving force has begun to be applied), the maximum amplitude occurs as expected at ω = ω₀. The height and width of the resonance curve are governed by the damping coefficient γ. If there were no damping, the maximum amplitude would be infinite. Because small disturbances at every possible frequency are always present in the natural world, every rigid structure would shake itself to pieces if not for the presence of internal damping.

Resonances are not uncommon in the world of familiar experience. For example, cars often rattle at certain engine speeds, and windows sometimes rattle when an airplane flies by. Resonance is particularly important in music. For example, the sound box of a violin does its job well if it has a natural frequency of oscillation that responds resonantly to each musical note. Very strong resonances to certain notes—called “wolf notes” by musicians—occur in cheap violins and are much to be avoided. Sometimes, a glass may be broken by a singer as a result of its resonant response to a particular musical note.