Describe some everyday situations that involve simple harmonic
motion (at least approximately).
Is the motion of a piston in your automobile's engine simple
harmonic motion?
Describe some kind of periodic motion that is not simple harmonic
motion.
Explain why increasing the mass in a spring-and-mass simple
harmonic oscillator causes the period to increase.
Explain why increasing the stiffness of the spring in a spring-and-mass
simple harmonic oscillator causes the period to decrease.
How is spring potential energy related to the stretch or compression
of a spring?
How is gravitational potential energy related to the location
of an object?
If a pendulum is taken from a valley up to the top of a high
mountain, would its period become greater or smaller?
If a carefully calibrated pendulum were over a large oil deposit,
where the acceleration due to gravity is slightly decreased, what
would happen to the pendulum's period?
If a carefully calibrated pendulum were over a large lead
deposit, where the acceleration due to gravity is slightly greater
than normal, what would happen to the pendulum's period?
In a mass and spring system and in a simple pendulum, energy
changes back and forth from kinetic energy to gravitational potential
energy. What forms of energy are involved in a torsional pendulum?
Balance wheels on watches are carefully designed to keep the
same period under a wide variety of temperatures. Instead, suppose
the balance wheel in a watch were just a solid metal disk attached
to an axis with a spring. Explain what would happen to the period
of this disk and spring as the temperature of the disk increased?
As the amplitude of a damped oscillator decays, there is less
energy stored in the oscillator. What has happened to the energy
it started with?
Can the speed of a simple harmonic oscillator be zero? Where?
Can the acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator be zero?
Where?
If your shock absorbers are carefully adjusted to give a very
good and comfortable ride with just the driver in the car, how
will the ride be affected if your car is fully loaded with passengers
and luggage?
