Circular Motion and SHM Flashcards
What is the term given to an object rotating at a steady rate?
Uniform circular motion
If an ball on a string is travelling in a circle in the vertical plane, where are the points of minimum and maximum tension?
Minimum tension at the top
Maximum tension at the bottom
Define centripetal force
The resultant force that makes the object move in a circle
Why do planes turn when at an angle?
The lift force is comprised of a horizontal and vertical component.
The horizontal component provides the centripetal force causing it to turn.
What kind of motion will a pendulum perform?
Simple harmonic motion
What is the period of oscillation?
The time for one complete cycle of oscillation.
If the graph of displacement is sin(x), what will the respective graphs of velocity and acceleration look like?
Velocity as cos(x)
Acceleration as -sin(x)
Describe a freely oscillating object
It oscillates with a constant amplitude because there is no friction acting on it.
(Its energy is constant)
What is natural frequency?
The frequency of free oscillations of an oscillating system.
What are forced vibrations?
Making an object oscillate at a frequency that is not it’s natural frequency
When does resonance occur?
When the frequency of driving force or oscillation matches the natural frequency of the system.
What is the outcome of resonance?
An increase in amplitude of the system’s oscillation.
What is damping?
The term used to describe the removal of energy from an oscillating system.
What are the three levels of damping?
Light
Heavy
Critical
Describe light damping of a system
The system oscillates over a long time frame before coming to rest.
The amplitude of the oscillations exponentially decay.
Describe heavy damping (over damping)
System not allowed to oscillate.
Slowly returns to equilibrium.
Describe critical damping
The oscillating system returns to the zero position of the oscillation after one quarter of a time period.
How do you convert degrees -> radians
How do you convert radians -> degrees
Define angular displacement
The angle through which an object in circular motion travels in a given time
How do you deal with rpm? (revolutions per minute)
÷60 to convert to rps (revolutions per second)
Then set rps = frequency
Define frequency
The number of complete oscillations per second