MATH 1080 Term Project

Christopher Prisbrey

Harmonic motion, especially dampening harmonic motion, are models that we interact with on a daily basis. Some examples of real world application of these models are vehicle suspension, pendulums, and electric circuits. As pertaining to amplitude, period, and frequency, I think it is important to understand these components so that you can get a quick understanding of how the model will look. By understanding the relationships between those three you can easily model the motion if you have a little information about the amplitude and period or frequency. This project greatly changed my understanding of trigonometry. Prior to this I had never had any experience with trigonometry. I would never have thought that things like springs would be modelled using methods like this. The idea that you can model and oscillation with a circle was completely out of realm of my imagination. We have an electrician that uses an oscilloscope to tune his systems, I never knew that had anything to do with trigonometry. I am planning on taking calculus I, II and III and from what I have learned thus far trigonometry will be an essential skill to have in order to succeed in those classes.

PART 1
Modeling the Motion of a Spring Consider a weight attached to a spring that is suspended from a horizontal bar as illustrated in the figure. When the object comes to rest we say it is at equilibrium which is labeled 0 on the vertical number line. If you give the weight a push, either up or down, it will start to move and the motion can be modeled by sine and cosine functions. The stiffness of the spring and the mass of the object affect how far the object moves from the equilibrium position. The initial velocity and initial position also affect the motion of the spring. (We dont always start at the equilibrium position.) If we neglect any damping forces (air resistance etc.) then the motion of the spring can be modeled by () =

() + ()

MATH 1080 Term Project

Where () is the position of the object along the number line at time. The other quantities are constants: is a constant that depends on the stiffness of the spring and the mass of the weight, 0 is the initial velocity, and 0 is the initial position of the object. Model the motion of a weight on a spring: Suppose a weight is set in motion from a position 8 centimeters below the equilibrium position and with a downward velocity of 15 centimeters per second. (Please note that the vertical number line used for position is upside down. This is a convention from physics and it means that position below equilibrium actually correspond to a positive value.) Assume that the constant for the spring stiffness and mass of the weight is = 6 for this system. Part I 1) Write the function that gives the position of the weight as a function of time in seconds. (Your function should consist of a sine term and a cosine term () + () 2) Graph the separate sine and cosine components of your function from (1) on the same set of axes. That is graph = () and = () on the set () = of axes below. (Sketch these graphs by hand and show two full cycles.)

MATH 1080 Term Project

Explain what you see in the graphs. Talk about amplitude, period, frequency, and phase shift. In the graph x = 8cos(6t) I see the function has an amplitude of 8, a period of pi/3, a frequency of 3/pi and a phase shift of 0. In the graph x=5/3sin(6t) I see the function has an amplitude of 5/3, a period of pi/3 a frequency of 3/pi and a phase shift of 0. These graphs are very similar except the amplitude and also the trigonometry function that is used in each one.

Use a graphing calculator (or online graphing utility) to graph the entire function from part (1). Use the window settings indicated below. Sketch what you see on your calculator display. tmin =
12

; tmax =

2 3

; xmin = -10 ; xmax = 10. Remember the horizontal axis is t, and

the vertical axis is x for this graph.

MATH 1080 Term Project

1) Write an equation for your calculator graph in the form x(t) = A cos [B(t C)]. (Use the maximum feature of your graphing utility to help you find values for A, B, and C. Round values to four decimal places. Carefully label the points on the graph that you used to determine A, B, and C. Explain how you used these points to determine A, B, and C.

() = . (. ( . ))
I got the value of A from the Amplitude of the graph, which is also absolute value of the max and min. The value of B is the period, which was obtained from the graph by taking the length between the two maximums and solving using 2pi/B solving for B. The final value, C, was obtained by taking the distance that the first maximum was shifted to the right from the y-axis.

MATH 1080 Term Project

2) How are the graphs in part 2) related to the graph in part 3)? Are the values for amplitude, period, frequency, and phase shift the same or different? Why do you think you are seeing these results? Please write out your explanation in complete sentences. The graphs in part 2 are related to the graph in part 3 in that part 3 is a sum of the graphs in part 2. For every value of x in part 3 the y value is a sum of the two graphs in part 2. The period and the frequency are the same since both graphs in part 2 are the same.

MATH 1080 Term Project

PART 2

Suppose we have two positive measurements C1 and C2 . Why is it always possible to draw a right triangle with legs having these two measurements? How would you calculate A? It is always possible because if you draw both legs and a right angle to each other and connect the ends with a straight line, you will get the same triangle, regardless of orientation. To calculate A I would use the Pythagorean theorem squaring C1 and C2 then square rooting the that. Find sin : sin = C1 /A Find cos : cos = C2 /A Find tan : tan = C1 / C2
1 1 Find . [Hint: This will involve tan x.]: = tan ( C1 / C2 )

Solve for C1 : C1 =A sin Solve for C2 : C2 =A cos

Find A and given that C1 = 4 and C2 = 2: A = Sqrt(20) and = ~63.4 8 C Find A and given that 1 = 3 and C2 = 7: A = Sqrt(505/9) and = ~20.6

MATH 1080 Term Project

PART 3
Verify that the identity () + () = ( ) is true. You must give a justification for each step. Remember to use properties such as the distributive property and the commutative property. Start with: Step () + () ( () + ()) ( () + ()) ( ) Justification Pick the more complicated side Factor out A Use the commutative property Cosine Angle Difference Identity

MATH 1080 Term Project

PART 4
MATH 1080 Term Project Final Component
Use the identity that you have developed in the previous parts of the project to rewrite an expression like c1 sin(t ) c2 cos(t ) in the form A sin sin(t ) A cos cos(t ) . Start with the beginning function from Part I.

Rewrite A sin sin(t ) A cos cos(t ) in the form A cos(t ) . 111

= tan1

2.5 = 17.3540 8

5 = sin(6) + 8cos(6) 2 () = 8.3815 sin(17.3540) sin(6) + 8.3815 cos(17.3540) cos(6) () = 8.3815(sin(17.3540) sin(6) + cos(17.3540) cos(6)) () = 8.3815(cos(17.3540) cos(6) + sin(17.3540) sin(6)) () = 8.3815(6 17.3540) () = 8.3815(6 0.3029 ) *expressed in radians

Rewrite A cos(t ) in the form A cos( B(t C )) .

() = 8.3815(6 0.3029)

() = 8.3815(6( 0.0505)

What do you observe? I observe that the formula that was created using the graph was almost exactly the same as the formula that was obtained by using trigonometry identities. The only difference is in B. This I attribute to the loss in precision when using the graph to establish the period.