Unit 10
Oscillations.
A spring, a pendulum and a swing: what sets the rhythm, where the energy goes, and how resonance builds.
Before this unit
- Energy
- Trigonometry Mathematics
The unit, lesson by lesson
Lessons
4 lessons · 23 practice questions · about 2 hours
A mass on a spring
Hooke's law, where the mass comes to rest, and what sets the period of a bounce on a spring, and what does not.
Simple harmonic motion
The circle hiding behind the bounce: frequency and angular frequency, the top speed, where the acceleration is largest, and the energy passing back and forth.
The pendulum
What sets the period of a mass on a string: the length and gravity, not the mass, and hardly the size of the swing.
Resonance
Small pushes at the right rhythm: the natural frequency, why pushes in step build a big swing, and how friction decides how big.