PX153 - B4 - application - first look at smh
- as an example, let's look at a mass on a spring
- the force on the mass
- using PX155 - A2 - newton's second law, we can derive the equation of motion:
or,
- let
- now we need to solve the 2nd order differential equation:$$\frac{d^2x}{dt^2}=-\omega_0^2x$$
- try solution:
- from this,
- for this to be generally true,
- both roots are equally valid, hence the general solution is the sum of both:
$$x(t)=Ce^{i\omega_0t}+De^{-i\omega_0t}$$
-
aside: helpful to consider dimensions
-
eg: what are the dimensions of
? so, must be dimensionless
-
suppose the initial condition are
and the value of - we then have:
- and:
-
if instead, the initial conditions are
and
and
giving,
\1\n\2\n