5.4 Mechanical Vibrations
The motion of a mass attached to a spring serves as a relatively simple example of the vibrations that occur in more complex mechanical systems. For many such systems, the analysis of these vibrations is a problem in the solution of linear differential equations with constant coefficients.
We consider a body of mass m attached to one end of an ordinary spring that resists compression as well as stretching; the other end of the spring is attached to a fixed wall, as shown in Fig. 5.4.1. Assume that the body rests on a frictionless horizontal plane, so that it can move only back and forth as the spring compresses and stretches. Denote by x the distance of the body from its equilibrium position—its position when the spring ...
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