Physics 8.03 Vibrations and Waves Lecture 5 Coupled Oscillators

Announcements for today Exam #1 is next Tuesday 02/24/04 in 6-120 Exam review No review Saturday 2 to 3:30pm OR Saturday 7 to 8:30pm OR Sunday 2 to 3:30pm Problem Set #3 will be posted tomorrow Due Friday, February 27, 2004 Coupled oscillators Problem Set #2 Solutions will be posted tomorrow Graded pset will NOT be returned before Exam 1

Today: Coupled oscillators What happens when we put two pendulums beside each other? Nothing special. We get two pendulums. What happens when we couple them with a spring? Their motion depends on the initial conditions (i.c.) So what, we’ve seen that before. The amplitude and phase of the motion depends on the i.c. Aha, but now the frequency of oscillation depends on i.c. In fact, in general the motion isn’t even harmonic Except when i.c. correspond to normal modes of oscillation