How Do You Find Displacement, Velocity, and Acceleration in Oscillatory Motion?

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around oscillatory motion, specifically focusing on finding displacement, velocity, and acceleration for a mass-spring system. The original poster presents a scenario involving a 1.00 kg object attached to a spring with a given force constant, starting from a compressed position.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Mathematical reasoning

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • The original poster attempts to derive equations for displacement, velocity, and acceleration but expresses confusion about how to apply these equations as functions of time. Some participants suggest using the general solution for periodic motion and differentiating to find velocity and acceleration.

Discussion Status

Participants are exploring different interpretations of the equations involved in oscillatory motion. Some guidance has been offered regarding the use of sine and cosine functions, as well as the importance of using radians in calculations. However, there is no explicit consensus on the correct approach to the problem.

Contextual Notes

There is a mention of initial conditions that need to be imposed to determine the phase constant, as well as confusion regarding the mode of measurement (radians vs. degrees) for calculations.

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Question:
A 1.00 kg object attached to a spring of force constant 41.0 N/m oscillates on a horizontal, frictionless track. At t = 0, the object is released from rest at x = -3.00 cm. (That is, the spring is compressed by 3.00 cm.)

Find the displacement, velocity and acceleration as functions of the time t.



my answer:

my legend:
w= angular frequency
&= phase constant

ok, so for displacement: x(t)=Acos(wt+&)
velocity: -wAsin(wt+&)
acceleration: -w^2Acos(wt+&)

A = max displacement, which is .03 m in this case

w= 2(pi)(f)

where f=1/T

where T=2(pi)(square root of m/k)

so solving for all that, i get w=6.41 which i know is right...

so now how do i solve the question?? HOw do i solve each of those equations as a function of something? i have no idea how to do this, i been stuck on this problem forever and i keep getting the wrong answer

thanks
 
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1.If the mass and the elestic constant is give,then it's given [itex]\omega[/itex]

2. Take the general solution for the periodic motion
[tex]x(t)=A\sin(\omega t+\phi)[/tex]
and impose the codition that,at the initial time,the x must be "-A".You'll get the phase.Then to get 'v' and 'a' u need to differentiate wrt time.


Daniel.
 
do you mean cos instead of sin??

also a quick quesiton, when calculating, do i use radian or degree mode in my graphing calc?

thx
 
1.The anwer will come out with "-cos".
2.I don't know what will work with your computer... :confused:

Daniel.
 
Use radians for your calculator unless you're very sure that you're working with degrees.
 

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