• Any oscillations about an equilibrium where its restoring force is proportional to its displacement will be simple harmonic
• This doesn’t apply just to pendulums and mass on springs
• An example of another harmonic oscillator is the oscillation of a liquid in a U-tube

A U-tube is a type of simple harmonic oscillator with a displacement x from the equilibrium position and length of liquid column L

• The time period for these oscillations are found from the same equation as the time period of a simple pendulum, where?l?is known the length of the liquid column
• An exam question will likely state whether a particular oscillation should be treated as simple harmonic. Some other examples include:
  • A bungee jumper
  • An acrobat on a trapeze
  • A swing
  • A ball in a concave dish
  • Oscillating platforms

轉載自savemyexams