Question

4. A damped oscillator has a resonant frequency of 100 Hz, and a Q of 10. The oscillator is displaced by an amount 0.1 meter and let go.

(a) Sketch its subsequent motion qualitatively on a plot showing amplitude (distance to the rest position, positive for one side, negative for the other) versus time. Be sure to label the axes in seconds and meters.

(b) The same damped oscillator is driven with a strong sinusoidal drive of variable frequency. Sketch the oscillator’s amplitude as a function of frequency of the drive from 0 to 200 Hz. Do not worry about the scale of the vertical axis, but label the scale of the frequency axis for the drive (the horizontal axis).

Answer 1