- #1
PsychonautQQ
- 784
- 10
Hey PF,
my book either got sloppy in a derivation or I am not connecting two very obvious dots.
It gives the energy of the damped harmonic oscillator as
E = (1/2)mv^2 + (1/2)kx^2
then takes the derivative with respect to time to get dE/dt.
then it gives the differential equation of motion as
ma + kx = -cv
okay cool I'm following so far...
then it says with this equation of motion we know that
dE/dt = -cv^2
what am I missing here?
my book either got sloppy in a derivation or I am not connecting two very obvious dots.
It gives the energy of the damped harmonic oscillator as
E = (1/2)mv^2 + (1/2)kx^2
then takes the derivative with respect to time to get dE/dt.
then it gives the differential equation of motion as
ma + kx = -cv
okay cool I'm following so far...
then it says with this equation of motion we know that
dE/dt = -cv^2
what am I missing here?