General Physics 1

2nd Quarter
Damped Oscillations and Mechanical Waves
 At the end of this lesson, you are expected to:

∙ differentiate underdamped, overdamped, and critically

damped motion;
∙ define mechanical wave, longitudinal wave, transverse
wave, periodic wave, and sinusoidal wave;
∙ from a given sinusoidal wave function infer the speed,
wavelength, frequency, period, direction, and the wave
number;
∙ apply the inverse-square relation between the intensity
of waves and the distance from the source.
 What I Know
Instruction: Write the letter of the correct answer on a separate sheet of
paper.
1. What is the force that makes oscillations damped?
A. linear motion B. restoring force C. frictional force D. mechanical force
2. What will happen to the motion when friction reduces the mechanical energy of
the system as time passes? The motion will become ____________.
A. damped B. lineated C. randomed D. simpled
3. What do you call the oscillations of a system in the presence of some resistive
force?
A. linear oscillations C. random oscillations
B. damped oscillations D. simple harmonic motion
4. What type of wave if the particles of the medium are vibrating to and fro in the
same direction of energy transport?
A. sound B. standing C. transverse D. longitudinal
5. What type of wave when the particles of a medium are vibrating at right angles to
the direction of energy transport?
A. sound B. standing C. transverse D. longitudinal
6. What will happen to the wavelength as a wave travels into a medium in which its
speed increases?
A. decrease C. remains the same
B. increase D. it will increase and decrease after
7. What is transported when a sound wave travels from one place to another?
A. air B. density C. energy D. wave
8. Which of the following is the speed of a wave traveling with a wavelength λ, frequency f, and
period T?
A. v = B. v = C. v = λ·f D. v = f·T
9. What happens to the speed of the wave if its frequency doubles and the
wavelength remains the same? It ____________.
A. doubles C. is halved
B. quadruples D. remains unchanged
10. A sound wave is a mechanical wave, not an electromagnetic wave.
What does it mean?
A. A sound wave transports its energy through a vacuum.
B. A medium is required in order for sound waves to transport energy.
C. The particles of the medium regularly and repeatedly oscillate about
their rest position.
D. The particles of the medium move perpendicular to the direction of
energy transport.

11. If you strike a horizontal rod vertically from above, what can be said
about the waves created in the rod? The particles ___________________.
A. vibrate horizontally along the direction of the rod
B. travel along the rod from the point of impact to its end
C. vibrate in circles, perpendicular to the direction of the rod
D. vibrate vertically, perpendicular to the direction of the rod
For numbers 12-14, refer to the problem below.
A transverse wave is observed to be moving along a lengthy rope. Adjacent crests are positioned 2.4 m
apart. Exactly six crests are observed to move past a given
point along the medium in 9.1 seconds. Determine the wavelength, frequency and speed of these waves.
12. What is the wavelength of the transverse wave?

A. 2.1 m B. 2.2 mC. 2.3 mD. 2.4 m

13. What is the frequency of the wave?
A. 0.56 Hz B. 0.66 Hz C. 0.76 Hz D. 0.86 Hz
14. What is the speed of the wave?
A. 1.6 m/s B. 2.6 m/s C. 3.6 m/s D. 4.6 m/s
15. The frequency of a wave increases when the speed remains the same. What happens to the distance
between two consecutive crests? It ______________.
A. increases C. stays unchanged
B. decreases D. increases first and then decreases
 Vibrations and oscillations are part of your
everyday life. Within minutes of waking up, you may
well experience vibrations in a wide variety of forms:
the buzzing of the alarm clock, the bounce of your bed,
the oscillations of a loud speaker, which in turn are
produced by oscillations of charges in electric circuits.
Some are very welcome and aesthetically pleasing,
such as vibrations of musical instruments. Others, such
as the vibrations caused by machinery and traffic are
annoying and noisy.
 Exercise 1.1 Keep on buzzing!
List examples of vibrating objects and write down their advantages and disadvantages.
Example of Vibrating

Objects Advantage Disadvantage

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
 Damped Harmonic Motion

The oscillatory motions that we have considered in the previous lesson

is for ideal systems-that is systems that oscillate indefinitely under the action
of only one force - a linear restoring force. In the real world, oscillations
seldom follow true SHM. Friction of some sort usually acts to dampen the
motion so it dies away, or needs more force to continue. In many real systems,
nonconservative forces, such as friction, retard the motion. Consequently, the
mechanical energy of the system diminishes in time, and the motion is said to
be damped.
A guitar string stops oscillating a few seconds after being plucked. To
keep swinging on a playground swing, you must keep pushing. Although we
can often make friction and other nonconservative forces small or
negligible, completely undamped motion is rare. In fact, we may even want to
damp oscillations, such as with car shock absorbers.
Figure 1.2 below depicts one such system: an object attached to a spring
and submersed in a viscous liquid.
 Notice initially when the object is stretched to a maximum
displacement to the amplitude at time equals to zero, the object is found at
the position +Ao. But eventually over time the amplitude will decrease as
shown by the dash line (Figure
1.4), the object will come to a complete rest. This type of realistic harmonic
motion is known as damped harmonic motion. In real situation, any object
that is vibrating or oscillating back and forth is experiencing damped
harmonic motion.
Simple harmonic motion is much easier to deal with mathematically.
In fact,
we could use in some instances SHM to approximate damped harmonic
motion.
 If the medium is so viscous that the retarding
force is greater than the restoring force—that is, if
Rmax = bvmax > kA and b/2m > ω0—the system is
overdamped. Again, the displaced system, when
free to move, does not oscillate but simply returns to
its equilibrium position. As the damping increases,
the time interval required for the system to
approach equilibrium also increases, as indicated
by the black curve in Figure 1.5. An overdamped
system will approach equilibrium over a longer
period of time. An automatic door close is an
example of an overdamped system.
 Instructions: Identify the word(s) that best describes
the statement. Write your answers on the separate
sheet of paper.

_______________1. It is the force that acts on the object to

impede the oscillation.
_______________2. It is equal to the square root of the force
constant divided by the mass.
_______________3. It is any system that behaves where an object
oscillates in the presence of a retarding force.
_______________4. It is a harmonic oscillator that decays to the
equilibrium position without oscillations.
_______________5. It is a harmonic oscillator that oscillates with
a frequency smaller than in the non-damped case and
an amplitude decreasing with time.
 These waves move outward from the creation
point in expanding circles until they reach the shore. If
you were to examine carefully for example the motion
of a beach ball floating on the disturbed water, you
would see that the ball moves vertically and
horizontally about its original position but does not
undergo any net displacement away from or toward the
point where the pebble hit the water. The small
elements of water in contact with the beach ball, as
well as all the other water elements on the pond’s
surface, behave in the same way. That is, the water
wave moves from the point of origin to the shore, but
the water is not carried with it.
 If we are going to consider further the
beach ball floating on the water, take note that
we have caused the ball to move at one point
in the water by dropping a pebble at another
location. Energy must have transferred from
the point at which we drop the pebble to the
position of the ball because the ball gained
kinetic energy from our action. This is a
central feature of wave motion—energy is
transferred over a distance, but matter is not.
 All waves carry energy, but the
amount of energy transmitted through
a medium and the mechanism
responsible for that transport of
energy differ from every situation. For
example, the power of ocean waves
during a storm is much greater than
the power of sound waves generated
by a single human voice.
 A mechanical wave is a wave that is not capable of
transmitting its energy through a vacuum. Mechanical
waves require a medium in order to transport their energy
from one location to another. A sound wave is an example
of a mechanical wave. Sound waves are incapable of
traveling through a vacuum. Slinky waves, water waves,
stadium waves, and jump rope waves are other
examples of mechanical waves; each requires some
medium in order to exist. A slinky wave requires the
coils of the slinky; a water wave requires water; a
stadium wave requires fans in a stadium; and a jump rope
wave requires a jump rope.
 A transverse wave is a wave in which particles of the
medium move in a direction perpendicular to the direction
that the wave moves. Suppose that a slinky is stretched out
in a horizontal direction across the classroom and that a
pulse is introduced into the slinky on the left end by
vibrating the first coil up and down. Energy will begin to
be transported through the slinky from left to right. As the
energy is transported from left to right, the individual coils
of the medium will be displaced upwards and downwards.
In this case, the particles of the medium move
perpendicular to the direction that the pulse moves.
Transverse waves are always characterized by particle
motion being perpendicular to wave motion.
 A longitudinal wave is a wave in which particles
of the medium move in a direction parallel to the
direction that the wave moves. Suppose that a slinky
is stretched out in a horizontal direction across the
classroom and that a pulse is introduced into the
slinky on the left end by vibrating the first coil left and
right. Energy will begin to be transported through the
slinky from left to right. As the energy is transported
from left to right, the individual coils of the medium
will be displaced leftwards and rightwards. In this
case, the particles of the medium move parallel to the
direction that the pulse moves. Longitudinal
waves are always characterized by particle motion
being parallel to wave motion.
 Waves may be transverse, longitudinal, or a combination of
the two. Examples of transverse waves are the waves on stringed
instruments or surface waves on water, such as ripples moving on a
pond. Sound waves in air and water are longitudinal. With sound
waves, the disturbances are periodic variations in pressure that are
transmitted in fluids. Fluids do not have appreciable shear strength,
and for this reason, the sound waves in them are longitudinal
waves. Sound in solids can have both longitudinal and transverse
components, such as those in a seismic wave. Earthquakes generate
seismic waves under Earth’s surface with both longitudinal and
transverse components (called compressional or P-waves and shear
or S-waves, respectively). The components of seismic waves have
important individual characteristics—they propagate at different
speeds. Earthquakes also have surface waves that are similar to surface
waves on water. Ocean waves also have both transverse and
longitudinal components
 The function y, sometimes called the wave function,
depends on the two variables x and t. For this reason, it is often
written y(x, t), which is read “y as a function of x and t.”
It is important to understand the meaning of y. Consider
an element of the string at point P, identified by a particular
value of its x coordinate. As the pulse passes through P, the y
coordinate of this element increases, reaches a maximum, and
then decreases to zero. The wave function y(x, t)
represents the y coordinate—the transverse position—of
any element located at position x at any time t. Furthermore,
if t is fixed (as, for example, in the case of taking a snapshot
of the pulse), then the wave function y(x), sometimes
called the waveform, defines a curve representing the actual
geometric shape of the pulse at that time.
 A periodic wave is a wave with a repeating
continuous pattern that moves through a medium.
The medium itself goes nowhere. The individual
atoms and molecules in the medium oscillate
about their equilibrium position, but their
average position does not change. As they
interact with their neighbors, they transfer some
of their energy to them. The neighboring atoms in
turn transfer this energy to their neighbors down
the line. In this way the energy is transported
throughout the medium, without the transport of
any matter.
 If the individual atoms and molecules
in the medium move with simple
harmonic motion, the resulting periodic
wave has a sinusoidal form. We call it a
harmonic wave or a sinusoidal wave.
Sinusoidal Waves
The wave represented by the curve in Figure 2.5 is
called a sinusoidal wave because the curve is the same
as that of the function sin θ plotted against θ. On a
rope, a sinusoidal wave could be established by
shaking the end of the rope up and down in simple
harmonic motion.
 The sinusoidal wave is the simplest example of a periodic
continuous wave and can be used to build more complex waves.
The brown curve in Figure 2.6 represents a snapshot of a traveling
sinusoidal wave at t = 0, and the blue curve represents a snapshot of
the wave at some later time t. Take note that there are two types of
motion that can be seen in your mind. First, the entire waveform
moves to the right so that the brown curve moves toward the right
and eventually reaches the position of the blue curve. This is the
motion of the wave. If we focus on one element of the medium,
such as the element at x = 0, we see that each element moves up and
down along the y axis in simple harmonic motion. This is the
motion of the elements of the medium. It is important to
differentiate between the motion of the wave and the motion of the
elements of the medium.
 Figure 2.7a shows a snapshot of a wave moving through a
medium. Figure 2.7b shows a graph of the position of one element of
the medium as a function of time. The point at which the displacement
of the element from its normal position is highest is called the crest of
the wave. The distance from one crest to the next is called the
wavelength λ (Greek lambda). More generally, the wavelength is the
minimum distance between any two identical points (such as the
crests) on adjacent waves, as shown in Figure 2.7a.
If you count the number of seconds between the arrivals of two
adjacent crests at a given point in space, you are measuring the period
T of the waves. In general, the period is the time interval required for
two identical points (such as the crests) of adjacent waves to pass by a
point. The period of the wave is the same as the period of the simple
harmonic oscillation of one element of the medium.
The inverse of the period is called the frequency f. In general,
the frequency of a periodic wave is the number of crests (or troughs, or
any other point on the wave) that pass a given point in a unit time
interval. The frequency of a sinusoidal wave is related to the period by
the expression
The frequency of the wave is the same as the frequency of the simple harmonic
oscillation of one element of the medium. The most common unit for frequency
is second-1, or hertz (Hz). The corresponding unit for T is seconds.
The maximum displacement from equilibrium of an element of the
medium
is called the amplitude A of the wave.
Waves travel with a specific speed, and this speed depends on the
properties of the medium being disturbed. For instance, sound waves travel
through room temperature air with a speed of about 343 m/s (781 mi/h),
whereas they travel through most solids with a speed greater than 343 m/s.
The function describing the positions of the elements of the medium
through
which the sinusoidal wave is traveling can be written as
Intensity of Periodic Sound Waves
The concept that a wave traveling on a taut string
transports energy applies to sound waves also. Consider
an element of air of mass ∆m and width ∆x in front of a
piston oscillating with a frequency ω, as shown in
Figure 2.9.
The piston transmits energy to this
element of air in the tube, and the energy
is propagated away from the piston by
the sound wave. To evaluate the rate of
energy transfer for the sound wave, we
shall evaluate the kinetic energy of this
element of
air, which is undergoing simple harmonic
motion.
Instructions: Identify the word(s) that best
describes the statement. Write your answers
on a separate sheet of paper.

__________1. It is the rate at which the energy being

transported by the wave transfers through a unit area A
perpendicular to the direction of travel of the wave.

__________2. It is the maximum displacement from

equilibrium of an element of the medium of the wave.

__________3. It is the number of crests or troughs, or any

other point on the wave that pass a given point in a unit time
interval.

__________4. It is the distance from one crest to the next.

 __________5. It is the point at which the
displacement of the element from its normal position is
highest.
__________6. It is the distance along the direction of
propagation between two atoms which oscillate in phase.
__________7. It is a wave with a repeating continuous pattern
that moves through a medium.
__________8. It is a wave in which particles of the medium
move in a direction parallel to the direction that the wave
moves.
__________9. It is a wave in which particles of the medium
move in a direction perpendicular to the direction that the
wave moves.
__________10. It is a wave that is not capable of transmitting
its energy through a vacuum.
A. surface B. mechanical C. electromagnetic D. primary