Coupled oscillators

Tuneman

Ok here's the problemo:

|
|ooooo[m1]00000[m2]
|


I have two masses attached to two springs, the "ooo"s are the springs, and the "[m]"s are the masses, the spring constants are the same , and so are the masses. I know to do the problem, the only thing is I am having trouble figuring out the equations of the forces on the two masses.


I thought [tex] F_1 = -kx_1 + k(x_2 - x_1) , F_2 = kx_1 - kx_2 [/tex]

where [tex] x_1 [/tex] is the displacement to the right from [tex] m_1 [/tex] and [tex] x_2 [/tex] is the displacement to the right from [tex] m_2 [/tex]

Physics Monkey

You probably need some unstretched lengths in there somewhere otherwise your masses are going to be beating against the wall and each other.

Tuneman

Well they are at position zero as they appear in the picture and then they are moved to the right

Physics Monkey

Ah, ok, that works too. Looks like you have it right then.