A simple harmonic oscillator is a mechanical system which consists of a particle under the influence of a Hooke's law force. The equation of motion of such a system is
It is typical to define the quantity
Note that this equation is linear. Among other consequences, this means that the period of oscilltions does not depend on amplitude. It is rather simple to solve this equation in tems of trigonometric functions to obtain a general solution. This solution is typically written in one of two forms.
Either of these solutions shows that the frequency of oscillation is
These constants have the following interpretation:
As of this snapshot date, this entry was owned by rspuzio.