Amplitude of harmonic oscillator

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Homework Help Overview

The discussion revolves around a simple harmonic oscillator system subjected to a sinusoidal driving force. The original poster seeks to find the general solution and the amplitude of the steady state solution, referencing specific forms of the solution and related equations.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Mathematical reasoning, Assumption checking

Approaches and Questions Raised

  • Participants discuss the form of the steady state solution and the derivation of the amplitude. There are attempts to simplify the equation using trigonometric identities, and questions arise regarding the correctness of the steady state solution and the definition of f(w).

Discussion Status

The discussion includes various attempts to clarify the solution's form and the relationship between different terms. Some participants provide insights into using Maple for simplification, while others explore geometric interpretations related to the amplitude. There is a productive exchange of ideas, but no explicit consensus is reached.

Contextual Notes

The original poster expresses reluctance to share full details due to homework constraints, and there is an acknowledgment of specific values for parameters in the referenced solution.

longrob
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Homework Statement


I have a simple harmonic oscillator system with the driving force a sinusoidal term. The question is to find the general solution and the amplitude of the steady state solution


Homework Equations



I found the steady state part of the solution. It is of the form:
(sin(wt)*(1-w^2)-cos(wt)*w)/f(w)



The Attempt at a Solution



I'm told that the amplitude of the system in steady state should be 1/sqrt(f(w)) but I can't derive it. Can anyone help ?

Thanks
 
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use trig identity and reduce the equation to sin(A-B), amplitude is the factor by which the stated term is raised
 
But the coefficients of each sinusoidal term are different...
 
is your steady state solution correct? it gets crazy if i reduce it to some trig identity
and what is f(w) equal to?
 
Yes I'm sure it's correct. This is homework so I'm loathed to post the whole details. However, take a look here:
http://nuweb.neu.edu/dheiman/U600/DHO.pdf
Look at the section "Driven Harmonic Oscillator" on page 4. The solution given is exactly what I want (with lambda, w_0 and F_0/m all equal to 1). I just can't derive it from my own solution. By hand I just used a trial solution of p.cos(wt) + q.sin(wt) and equated coefficients, which lead to the form I posted above. I also used Maple to check this, and it agrees.
 
The (1-w^2) factor isn't under a square root?
 
no, it's not...
 
Another look at this in Maple:
[Sorry, fiddling with latex...]
 
Last edited:
In Maple:
[tex]{\it s2s}\, := \,{\frac { \left( -{\omega_{{0}}}^{2}+{\omega}^{2} \right) \sin \left( \omega\,t \right) +\cos \left( \omega\,t \right) \omega\,\lambda}{{\omega}^{4}+ \left( {\lambda}^{2}-2\,{\omega_{{0}}}^{2} \right) {\omega}^{2}\\<br /> \mbox{}+{\omega_{{0}}}^{4}}}\]}[/tex]

which simplifies to:

[tex]{\frac {\cos \left( \omega\,t-\arctan \left( -{\omega_{{0}}}^{2}+{\omega}^{2},\omega\,\lambda \right) \right) }{ \sqrt{{\lambda}^{2}{\omega}^{2}+{\omega_{{0}}}^{4}-2\,{\omega_{{0}}}^{2}{\omega}^{2}\\<br /> \mbox{}+{\omega}^{4}}}}\]}[/tex]

And that's what I'm trying to achieve by hand...

Maple code is
s2s:=((-omega[0]^2+omega^2)*sin(omega*t)+cos(omega*t)*omega*lambda)/(omega^4+(lambda^2-2*omega[0]^2)*omega^2+omega[0]^4);
simplify(convert(s2s,phaseamp,t));

Thanks
 
  • #10
Oh, that helps. Note that the denominator is [itex](\omega^2-\omega_0^2)^2+(\lambda\omega)^2[/itex]. Consider a right triangle with one leg of length [itex]\omega^2-\omega_0^2[/itex] and the other of length [itex]\lambda\omega[/itex]. Does that help?
 
  • #11
Indeed, yes. So easy now. Thanks !
 

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