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CHAPTER 1

The Simple Harmonic Oscillator


In the higher secondary course, we study two particular forms of motion in some detail - uniformly accelerated
motion on one hand and the simple harmonic motion on the other. The first of these is studied in some detail so much so, indeed, that the student often ends up with the idea that it is the most important form of motion that
exists. The truth is - such motion is very rare, indeed. The one example that springs to mind is that of motion
under gravity - and even that is uniformly accelerated only under the approximation in which air resistance is
neglected. On the other hand, we dont really treat the SHM in any great detail in that course. The reason that
springs to mind is the slightly higher degree of mathematical difficulty involved in the treatment of this system.
What we will see, however, is that the all-prevading nature of the simple harmonic motion actually more than
makes up for this slight complication.

1.1. The differential equation of motion


The SHM is defined as the motion of a point particle under a restoring force proportional to its displacement from the equillibrium position. Thus if the equllibrium position is taken to be at the origin, the force is
given by
(1.1.1)



kx

k being the force per unit displacement. In the case where the restoring force is due to a spring obeying Hooks
law, this is the so called spring constant. The minus sign in (1.1.1) signifies, of course, that the force is directed
against the displacement, i.e. , it is restoring. One quick aside here - if the equillibrium position is not at the
origin, but at x x0 then the force is, obviously :
(1.1.2)

 k  x  x 
0

Interestingly, this equation can be rewritten in the form


(1.1.3)

 kx 

F0

where F0 kx0 . This implies that displacing the equilibrium position adds a constant term to the force on top of
the restoring part.
The motion of the particle is governed by Newtons 2nd law of motion, which leads to



d 2x
m 2
kx
dt
for the force law given in ( 1.1.1). By introducing the abbreviation
(1.1.4)

k
m

we can rewrite this equation in the form


(1.1.5)

d2x
dt 2

02 x
1

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

Nearly all of the rest of this section will be devoted to solving this equation.
Before that, however, let us take a quick look at the case when the equillibrium position is not at the origin.
The equation of motion then becomes

 


d 2x
02 x x0
2
dt
Intorducing the displacement from the equillibrium position
(1.1.6)

0
x

x 0 this equation readily reduces to

d2
02 0
2
dt
which is identical to the standard SHM differential equation. This is no surprise, of course - we could view the
original x in this case as a wrongly choisen cordinate, in the sense that it does not originate from the position
of equillibrium. The new coordinate does vanish at the equillibrium position - all we have done is to shift our
choice of origin. The way a particle will move should obviously be independent of our choices! By reversing the
argument, it is obvious that the only effect superposing a constant force on top of the spring term is that it
shifts the equilibrium position.
1.2. Solving the SHM equation
The SHM differential equation

d2x
02 x 0
dt 2
is a particularly simple example of a second order linear homogeneous differential equation with constant
coefficients. Whew!! And you thought it was a piece of cake! That it is a differential equation stares you in
2
the face - you couldnt miss the dtd 2 ! Second order just refers to the fact that the highest order to which x has
been differentiated here is the second and homogeneous to the zero sitting on the right hand side of this equation!
Intoducing the notation D for the differential operator dtd , we can rewrite this into

D 
2

(1.2.1)

02 x

which looks sophisticated, though it is still plain ol (1.1.5) in a new bottle. (1.2.1) belongs to the class of
equations
(1.2.2)

Lu

 


where L is a linear operator, i.e., it satisfies the linearity property


(1.2.3)

L c1 u1

c2 u2

c1 L u1

c2 L u2

where u1 u2 are arbitrary functions of the independent variable (t in this case) and c1 c2 are arbitrary constants.
It is this linearity of the operator that is refered to in the description of the SHM equation.

 

P ROBLEM 1.2.1. Prove that the operator D2

02 is linear.

A result that is of great importance, is the subject of the next problem.


P ROBLEM 1.2.2. Show that if u1 and u2 are solutions to the linear homogeneous equation Lu 0, so is the
linear combination c1 u1 c2 u2 . Does this conclusion work for the linear heterogeneous equation Lu f t ,
where f t is an arbitrary nonzero function of t?

The reason behind the great importance of this result is that it allows us to write down general solutions to
a linear homogeneous equation. If we have found two solutions u 1 and u2 by any means, fair or foul - we have
found an infinite number of them : c1 u1 c2 u2 for the infinite possible values of c1 and c2 . Whats more, if we

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

are talking about a second order equation (and in physics, we usually will be doing just that!), this solution will
be the most general one, unless u1 and u2 turn out to be proportional to each other.One way to see that is to note
that the maximum number of independent solutions such an equation can have is 2 (Youve got to accept that as
a fact - after all, this isnt a mathematics text!) and if you have already got the two of them, any other solution
has to be of the form c1 u1 c2 u2 ! Another way is to note that since solving a second order differential equation
is tantamount to performing two integrations, the maximum number of arbitrary constants you can have in the
solution is two. In c1 u1 c2 u2 we have precisely that number! Indeed, if there existed a solution, say u 3 , which
is not of this form, then it is easy to see that c 1 u1 c2 u2 c3 u3 is also a solution - and we will be stuck with one
arbitrary constant too many! On the other hand, if u 2 happened to be proportional to u1 , then c1 u1 c2 u2 will just
turn out to be constant u1 - which has one arbitrary constant too few!
As an aside, let us see what the two arbitary constants physically mean in dynamics problems. The second law
of motion prescribes for us the acceleration of a body - but its position cannot be determined by this information
alone. In order to know the position, we need, in addition, the information about where it was at some particular
point of time as well as its velocity at that instant.Thus there should be space in the solutions to the equation of
motion to accomodate these two pieces of information - and the two integration constants satisfy juyst this need!
The most general second order linear differential eqation that we can write down obvously has the form

ddt x  b t dxdt  c t x f t
for a homogeneous equationthe function on the right, f t has to vanish. Inour particular case, the coefficient
functions a t
b t and c t are 1
0 and respectively. Being an equation with constant coefficients, this is a
2

(1.2.4)

at

2
0

very simple equation to crack.


Enough mathematicalese -now let us get down to the actual nitty-gritty of solving this equation.

1.2.1. First Method. The first method that we use to solve the SHM eqaution is straightforward. We would
like to integrate the second order differential equation twice. We could make a start by writing the double derivative as dv
dt - but that would introduce three variables in the differential equation, v t and x. As far as the standard
method of seperation is concerned, three definitely is a crowd. The other alternative is to use the identity

d2x
dt 2

(1.2.5)
which leads to

dv
dx

dv
02 x 0
dx
This equation has only two variables, allowing us to neatly seperate them :

(1.2.6)

vdv

02 dx

which can be trivially integrated to give

1 2 1 2 2
v
x
constant
2
2 0
Note that multiplying this equation with the mass yields an old friend - the conservation of energy equation :
(1.2.7)

1 2
mv
2

1
m02 x2
2

constant

Of course the second term on the left is none other than 12 kx2 - the potential energy due to a stretched string.
This is hardly a surprise - after all, conservation laws like the energy law are not called first integrals of motion

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

for nothing. The quantity E, which we know as the total energy of the system, is just a constant of integration whose value is dictated to us by the initial conditions. For our present purpose this equation is now a first order
differential equation which we can recast in the form



dx
dt

02

2E
m02

x2

Before proceeedibng any further, we simplify the notation by rewriting the constant of integration by intoducing
2E
A
. The next step, obviously, is to take the square root - and it is here that we face a slight problem m 2
0

which sign do we take for the square root. Not worrying to much about the details, we take the negative sign and
boldly press on

 

dx
0 A2 x2
dt
We will see in a short while that the choice of sign is not critical. It is now trivial to rewrite the equation as
(1.2.8)

  dx dt
A x
and integrate to get
x
t
cos  
A
where is the second constant of integration.Thus the solution to the equation of motion is

(1.2.9)
x A cos t  
and the corresponding velocity is

(1.2.10)
v A sin t  
2

The constants A and can be fixed from the initial conditions as follows. Let the initial conditions specified be
that at t 0 the position is x 0 and the velocity is v0 . Then, it is easy to see that the initial conditions lead to
(1.2.11)

x0

(1.2.12)

v0

A cos

0 A sin

Thus the constants are easily seen to be


x20

(1.2.13)

(1.2.14)
and one form for the equation of motion is
(1.2.15)

x20

tan

v20
02

v20
cos 0t
02

 


v0
0 x0

tan




v0
0 x0



A simpler form can be derived with much less labor, simply by making use of the trigonometric identity
cos 1

cos 1 cos 2

Thus, we have
x

A cos cos 0t

sin 1 sin 2

A sin sin 0t

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

which leads directly to


(1.2.16)

x0 cos 0t

v0
sin 0t
0

which is the form for the displacement in terms of the initial position and initial velocity.
What if we had chosen the other sign in (1.2.8)? It is easy to see that it would have lead to the solution

  


A sin 0t

where is the second constant of integration. This solution is, in fact, not different at all from (1.2.9) - putting

2 renders the two identical. Alternatively, it is trivial to check that under the initial conditions specified
this solution, too, leads to the same final result (1.2.16).

P ROBLEM 1.2.3. Prove this !


P ROBLEM 1.2.4. How would (1.2.16) change if the same initial conditions were specified at t
of at t 0? Try to solve this without repeating the entire calculation.

t0 instead

1.2.2. Second method. We are now going to flog a dead horse - repeat the solution of the SH equation by
another method! The method we are going to use for this is the so-called factorization method. This can be used
to solve much more complicated problems, and applying it here is really using a sledgehammer to crack a nut!
The starting point in this method is to factorize the second order differential operator appearing in this equation
into two terms, each linear in D. This is quite a non-trivial task for a general operator - since our ordinary high
school algebra deserts us here. For example the simple identity
a2

b2

a  b a  b

works only if multiplication is commtative, i.e. the products ab and ba are the same, since

a  b a  b

 b  b a  b
a  ab  ba  b

aa
2

which equals a2 b2 only if ab ba 0. Now, this commutative property, though the cornerstone of the algebra
of ordinary (real or complex) numbers, it breaks down in general for operators. For example, let us consider
the operators D (differentiation with respect to t) and t (multiplication by t). The products Dt and tD are both
operators. To check whether they are equal or not, let us apply them, one by one, on an arbitrary function of t,
f t . We have,

Dt f t

 
 f t
 f t

d
tf t
dt
d
t f t
dt
tD f t

Since this is valid for an arbitrary f t , we can drop it and write the operator relation
(1.2.17)

Dt

tD

This non-commutativity in operators lead to many interesting consequences, but also adds to the mathematical
difficulty in dealing with them. Having uttered these gloomy words, let us now take note that they dont really
apply in the present case. Since the differential operator that we are dealing with at present is one with constant

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

coefficients, D commutes with each one of them and we can use high school algebra :

D2

(1.2.18)
Thus, our equation becomes

and defining
(1.2.20)
we get a simple first order equation
(1.2.21)

i0 D

 

D

(1.2.19)

 

D

02

i 0

i 0 D

i0 x

D

i 0 x

D

i 0 y

for y.
Of course, this equation lends itself to a solution very easily :

dy
dt
dy
y
ln y

i0 y
i0 dt

0t

lnC1

where lnC1 isthe constant of integration. So we end up with


(1.2.22)

C1 e

i0t

The next step, of course is to substitute this result into equation (1.2.20) which leads to a first order differential
equation

dx
i0 x C1 e i0t
dt
an equation which can be easily solved by the use of an integrating factor

(1.2.23)

dx
e
dt

i0t

i0 xe

i0 t


xe 

d
xe
dt

2i0 t

C1 e

i0t

C1 e

i0 t

2i0 t

C1 e

2i0 t

dt

C2

where C2 is the new constant of integration. Finally, we arrive at the solution


(1.2.24)

C1 e

 
i0 t

C2 ei0t

where we have absorbed a factor of 2i into the constant C1 . The question now, is how to reconcile this solution
0
with that arrived at by the previous method? To this end, remeber that in spite of all this use of complex numbers,
the quanity we are dealing with - the position of the particle, is clearly a real number. Thus we must impose the
condition x x , which in turn leads to the constraint C1 C2 . Writing C1 A2 e i takes the solution (1.2.24)
into the one in (1.2.9).
Let me point out here that one has to be a bit careful in the counting of arbitrary constants. Although (1.2.24)
apparently has two arbitrary constants - it actually has four! Each complex number, after all, is equivalent to two
real numbers. Imposing the reality constarint, which is actually a set of two conditions - one for the real part and

1.2. SOLVING THE SHM EQUATION

one for the imaginary part, reduces the nuumber of independent complex constants to 1. This is equivelent to
having two independent real constants in the solution. These are our old friends A and .
P ROBLEM 1.2.5. Use the method discussed in this section to solve the differential equation

d2x
dx
20
02 x 0
2
dt
dt
Discuss the qualitative difference between this solution and that of the simple harmonic motion.
If at a time t 0 the particle is at rest at x A, find out x t .

P ROBLEM 1.2.6. One can use the factorization method to solve non-homogeneous equations with equal
ease. If a simple harmonic oscilltor is driven by an external sinusoidal force, the equation of motion becomes
d 2x
02 x f sin t
2
dt
where f is the driving force per unit mass. Find out the general solution for this equation. If at t 0, the
particle is at rest at the origin, find out x t . Discuss the behaviour of this system as approaches 0 , and
at 0 . Would you expect this behaviour to continue indefinitely?

1.2.3. Third Method. As if two methods for solving this simple equation werent enough, let me now introduce you to yet another one. Many of you may be already aware of this method from your higher secondary
maths course. Here, we will try to take a little deeper look into the reasoning involved in this method - but let us
get down to the brass tacks first!
The way to proceed is to try out a trial solution of the form
(1.2.25)

e pt

where p is a constant. Substituting this in (1.1.5) we get


p2 e pt

02 e pt

p2

02

and since e pt cannot be zero, we are left with

Thus, the trial solution, (1.2.25) does satisfy (1.1.5), provided the constant p takes one of two values :
p

#"

i 0

So, we have managed to find out two solution of our equation, namely, e i0t and e i0t . What we are looking for
is the most general solution to (1.1.5) and at this stage we still seem to be a long way away. In fact, however, the
general solution is just round the corner. If we take a look at the result in problem 1.2.2, we see that
(1.2.26)

C1 ei0t

C2 e

i0 t

is also a solution, This is where the simplicity of working with linear equations become apparent. Moreover,
note that we have two arbitrary constants, C1 and C2 in this solution. We have already seen that a second order
differential equation has to be integrated twice to be solved, and this means that its most general solution has two
arbitrary constants. Thus (1.2.26) is actually the most general solution we are seeking.

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