Understanding Angular Displacement in Weakly Damped Harmonic Oscillators

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SUMMARY

The discussion focuses on the relationship between angular displacement and angular velocity in weakly damped harmonic oscillators driven by sinusoidal forces. The differential equation of motion is expressed as ma + cv + kx = Fe^(iwt), leading to the solution x = Ae^i(wt-y), where y represents angular displacement. The derived equation tan(y) = 2uw / (W^2 - w^2) illustrates that angular displacement is dependent on angular velocity due to the phase shift between the driving force and the oscillation. This phase shift is a constant, clarifying the relationship between these variables.

PREREQUISITES
  • Understanding of weakly damped harmonic oscillators
  • Familiarity with differential equations in physics
  • Knowledge of sinusoidal forces and their representations
  • Basic grasp of angular displacement and angular velocity concepts
NEXT STEPS
  • Study the derivation of the differential equation for weakly damped harmonic oscillators
  • Explore the implications of phase shifts in oscillatory systems
  • Learn about the impact of damping on oscillation behavior
  • Investigate the role of angular velocity in driven harmonic motion
USEFUL FOR

Physics students, mechanical engineers, and anyone studying oscillatory motion and its dynamics in weakly damped systems.

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Hey PF. This isn't a homework question and I'm hoping this is the right place to ask it, sorry if it isn't!

In the case of a weakly damped harmonic oscillator driven by a sinusoidal force of the form Fe^(iwt). The form of the differential force equation of motion is then given by ma + cv +kx = Fe^(iwt).

The solution to this equation is given as x=Ae^i(wt-y) where y is angular displacement (analogous to theta). We then solve for v and a and plug the values into the force equation and proceeding to set the real and imaginary parts of said force equation equal to each other and then diving those equations by one another.

The result, using the supstitution of c = 2um where m is mass and u is a variable that scales proportionally to the drag coefficient (which is c), can take the form of giving y ( angular deplacement) as a function of angular velocity (w). The equation looks like this:

tan(y) = 2uw / (W^2 - w^2) where W is the undamped nondriven angular velocity given by the equation (k/m)^(1/2) and w is the angular velocity term from the driven force and solution to the differential equation.

Okay... I hope I explained that well enough.. Hoping someone out there is smart enough to know what I'm talking about even though I don't know what I'm talking about lol...

Anyhoo, my question is with understanding the equation. why is y (angular displacement) dependent on the angular velocity at all? Wouldn't angular displacement be a stand alone variable? The way we derived the equation of angular displacement as a function of angler velocity was having the angular displacement term originally take the form of the initial displacement. Why is this dependent on w!? How is it not a stand alone variable? Sorry if this was really repetitive trying to be as clear as possible.
 
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What you denote by ##y## is the phase shift between the driving force and the resultant oscillation. It is not a variable, because it is constant..
 
Oh, duh, thanks.
 

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