Oscillation

Oscillation is the repetitive or periodic variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central
value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples of
oscillation include a swinging pendulum and alternating current. Oscillations can be used in physics
to approximate complex interactions, such as those between atoms.

An undamped spring–
mass system is an
oscillatory system

Oscillations occur not only in mechanical systems but also in dynamic systems in virtually every
area of science: for example the beating of the human heart (for circulation), business cycles in
economics, predator–prey population cycles in ecology, geothermal geysers in geology, vibration of
strings in guitar and other string instruments, periodic firing of nerve cells in the brain, and the
periodic swelling of Cepheid variable stars in astronomy. The term vibration is precisely used to
describe a mechanical oscillation.

Oscillation, especially rapid oscillation, may be an undesirable phenomenon in process control and
control theory (e.g. in sliding mode control), where the aim is convergence to stable state. In these
cases it is called chattering or flapping, as in valve chatter, and route flapping.

Simple harmonic oscillation

The simplest mechanical oscillating system is a weight attached to a linear spring subject to only
weight and tension. Such a system may be approximated on an air table or ice surface. The system
is in an equilibrium state when the spring is static. If the system is displaced from the equilibrium,
there is a net restoring force on the mass, tending to bring it back to equilibrium. However, in moving
the mass back to the equilibrium position, it has acquired momentum which keeps it moving beyond
that position, establishing a new restoring force in the opposite sense. If a constant force such as
gravity is added to the system, the point of equilibrium is shifted. The time taken for an oscillation to
occur is often referred to as the oscillatory period.

The systems where the restoring force on a body is directly proportional to its displacement, such
as the dynamics of the spring-mass system, are described mathematically by the simple harmonic
oscillator and the regular periodic motion is known as simple harmonic motion. In the spring-mass
system, oscillations occur because, at the static equilibrium displacement, the mass has kinetic
energy which is converted into potential energy stored in the spring at the extremes of its path. The
spring-mass system illustrates some common features of oscillation, namely the existence of an
equilibrium and the presence of a restoring force which grows stronger the further the system
deviates from equilibrium.

In the case of the spring-mass system, Hooke's law states that the restoring force of a spring is:

By using Newton's second law, the differential equation can be derived:

where

The solution to this differential equation produces a sinusoidal position function:

where ω is the frequency of the oscillation, A is the amplitude, and δ is the phase shift of the
function. These are determined by the initial conditions of the system. Because cosine oscillates
between 1 and −1 infinitely, our spring-mass system would oscillate between the positive and
negative amplitude forever without friction.

Two-dimensional oscillators

In two or three dimensions, harmonic oscillators behave similarly to one dimension. The simplest
example of this is an isotropic oscillator, where the restoring force is proportional to the
displacement from equilibrium with the same restorative constant in all directions.
This produces a similar solution, but now there is a different equation for every direction.

Anisotropic oscillators

With anisotropic oscillators, different directions have different constants of restoring forces. The
solution is similar to isotropic oscillators, but there is a different frequency in each direction. Varying
the frequencies relative to each other can produce interesting results. For example, if the frequency
in one direction is twice that of another, a figure eight pattern is produced. If the ratio of frequencies
is irrational, the motion is quasiperiodic. This motion is periodic on each axis, but is not periodic
with respect to r, and will never repeat.[1]

Damped oscillations

Phase portrait of damped oscillator,

with increasing damping strength.

All real-world oscillator systems are thermodynamically irreversible. This means there are
dissipative processes such as friction or electrical resistance which continually convert some of the
energy stored in the oscillator into heat in the environment. This is called damping. Thus,
oscillations tend to decay with time unless there is some net source of energy into the system. The
simplest description of this decay process can be illustrated by oscillation decay of the harmonic
oscillator.

Damped oscillators are created when a resistive force is introduced, which is dependent on the first
derivative of the position, or in this case velocity. The differential equation created by Newton's
second law adds in this resistive force with an arbitrary constant b. This example assumes a linear
dependence on velocity.
This equation can be rewritten as before:

where .

This produces the general solution:

where .

The exponential term outside of the parenthesis is the decay function and β is the damping
coefficient. There are 3 categories of damped oscillators: under-damped, where β < ω0; over-
damped, where β > ω0; and critically damped, where β = ω0.

Driven oscillations

In addition, an oscillating system may be subject to some external force, as when an AC circuit is
connected to an outside power source. In this case the oscillation is said to be driven.

The simplest example of this is a spring-mass system with a sinusoidal driving force.

where

This gives the solution:

where and

The second term of x(t) is the transient solution to the differential equation. The transient solution
can be found by using the initial conditions of the system.

Some systems can be excited by energy transfer from the environment. This transfer typically
occurs where systems are embedded in some fluid flow. For example, the phenomenon of flutter in
aerodynamics occurs when an arbitrarily small displacement of an aircraft wing (from its
equilibrium) results in an increase in the angle of attack of the wing on the air flow and a
consequential increase in lift coefficient, leading to a still greater displacement. At sufficiently large
displacements, the stiffness of the wing dominates to provide the restoring force that enables an
oscillation.
Resonance

Resonance occurs in a damped driven oscillator when ω = ω0, that is, when the driving frequency is
equal to the natural frequency of the system. When this occurs, the denominator of the amplitude is
minimized, which maximizes the amplitude of the oscillations.

Coupled oscillations

Two pendulums with the same period fixed

on a string act as pair of coupled
oscillators. The oscillation alternates
between the two.

Experimental
Setup of
Huygens
synchronization
of two clocks

The harmonic oscillator and the systems it models have a single degree of freedom. More
complicated systems have more degrees of freedom, for example, two masses and three springs
(each mass being attached to fixed points and to each other). In such cases, the behavior of each
variable influences that of the others. This leads to a coupling of the oscillations of the individual
degrees of freedom. For example, two pendulum clocks (of identical frequency) mounted on a
common wall will tend to synchronise. This phenomenon was first observed by Christiaan Huygens
in 1665.[2] The apparent motions of the compound oscillations typically appears very complicated
but a more economic, computationally simpler and conceptually deeper description is given by
resolving the motion into normal modes.

The simplest form of coupled oscillators is a 3 spring, 2 mass system, where masses and spring
constants are the same. This problem begins with deriving Newton's second law for both masses.

The equations are then generalized into matrix form.

where , , and

The values of k and m can be substituted into the matrices.

These matrices can now be plugged into the general solution.

The determinant of this matrix yields a quadratic equation.

Depending on the starting point of the masses, this system has 2 possible frequencies (or a
combination of the two). If the masses are started with their displacements in the same direction,
the frequency is that of a single mass system, because the middle spring is never extended. If the
two masses are started in opposite directions, the second, faster frequency is the frequency of the
system.[1]

More special cases are the coupled oscillators where energy alternates between two forms of
oscillation. Well-known is the Wilberforce pendulum, where the oscillation alternates between the
elongation of a vertical spring and the rotation of an object at the end of that spring.

Coupled oscillators are a common description of two related, but different phenomena. One case is
where both oscillations affect each other mutually, which usually leads to the occurrence of a single,
entrained oscillation state, where both oscillate with a compromise frequency. Another case is
where one external oscillation affects an internal oscillation, but is not affected by this. In this case
the regions of synchronization, known as Arnold Tongues, can lead to highly complex phenomena
as for instance chaotic dynamics.

Small oscillation approximation

In physics, a system with a set of conservative forces and an equilibrium point can be approximated
as a harmonic oscillator near equilibrium. An example of this is the Lennard-Jones potential, where
the potential is given by:

The equilibrium points of the function are then found:

The second derivative is then found, and used to be the effective potential constant:

The system will undergo oscillations near the equilibrium point. The force that creates these
oscillations is derived from the effective potential constant above:

This differential equation can be re-written in the form of a simple harmonic oscillator:

Thus, the frequency of small oscillations is:

Or, in general form[3]

This approximation can be better understood by looking at the potential curve of the system. By
thinking of the potential curve as a hill, in which, if one placed a ball anywhere on the curve, the ball
would roll down with the slope of the potential curve. This is true due to the relationship between
potential energy and force.

By thinking of the potential in this way, one will see that at any local minimum there is a "well" in
which the ball would roll back and forth (oscillate) between and . This approximation is
also useful for thinking of Kepler orbits.

Continuous system – waves

As the number of degrees of freedom becomes arbitrarily large, a system approaches continuity;
examples include a string or the surface of a body of water. Such systems have (in the classical
limit) an infinite number of normal modes and their oscillations occur in the form of waves that can
characteristically propagate.

Mathematics

Oscillation of a sequence (shown in blue) is the

difference between the limit superior and limit
inferior of the sequence.

The mathematics of oscillation deals with the quantification of the amount that a sequence or
function tends to move between extremes. There are several related notions: oscillation of a
sequence of real numbers, oscillation of a real-valued function at a point, and oscillation of a
function on an interval (or open set).
Examples

Mechanical

Double pendulum

Foucault pendulum

Helmholtz resonator

Oscillations in the Sun (helioseismology), stars (asteroseismology) and Neutron-star oscillations.

Quantum harmonic oscillator

Playground swing

String instruments

Torsional vibration

Tuning fork

Vibrating string

Wilberforce pendulum

Lever escapement

Electrical

Alternating current

Armstrong (or Tickler or Meissner) oscillator

Astable multivibrator

Blocking oscillator

Butler oscillator

Clapp oscillator

Colpitts oscillator

Delay-line oscillator

Electronic oscillator

Extended interaction oscillator

 Hartley oscillator

Oscillistor

Phase-shift oscillator

Pierce oscillator

Relaxation oscillator

RLC circuit

Royer oscillator

Vačkář oscillator

Wien bridge oscillator

Electro-mechanical
Crystal oscillator

Optical

Laser (oscillation of electromagnetic field with frequency of order 1015 Hz)

Oscillator Toda or self-pulsation (pulsation of output power of laser at frequencies 104 Hz –

106 Hz in the transient regime)

Quantum oscillator may refer to an optical local oscillator, as well as to a usual model in quantum
optics.

Biological

Circadian rhythm

Bacterial Circadian Rhythms

Circadian oscillator

Lotka–Volterra equation

Neural oscillation

Oscillating gene

Segmentation clock

Human oscillation

Neural oscillation
 Insulin release oscillations

gonadotropin releasing hormone pulsations

Pilot-induced oscillation

Voice production

Economic and social

Business cycle

Generation gap

Malthusian economics

News cycle

Climate and geophysics

Atlantic multidecadal oscillation

Chandler wobble

Climate oscillation

El Niño-Southern Oscillation

Pacific decadal oscillation

Quasi-biennial oscillation

Astrophysics
Neutron stars

Cyclic Model

Quantum mechanical
Neutral particle oscillation, e.g. neutrino oscillations

Quantum harmonic oscillator

Chemical

Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction

Mercury beating heart

Briggs–Rauscher reaction
 Bray–Liebhafsky reaction

Computing
Cellular Automata oscillator

See also

Antiresonance

Beat (acoustics)

BIBO stability

Critical speed

Cycle (music)

Dynamical system

Earthquake engineering

Feedback

Fourier transform for computing periodicity in evenly spaced data

Frequency

Hidden oscillation

Madden–Julian oscillation

Least-squares spectral analysis for computing periodicity in unevenly spaced data

Oscillator phase noise

Periodic function

Phase noise

Quasiperiodicity

Reciprocating motion

Resonator

Rhythm

Seasonality

Self-oscillation
 Signal generator

Squegging

Strange attractor

Structural stability

Tuned mass damper

Vibration

Vibrator (mechanical)

References

1. Taylor, John R. (2005). Classical mechanics (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/55729992) . Mill

Valley, California. ISBN 1-891389-22-X. OCLC 55729992 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/557
29992) .

2. Strogatz, Steven (2003). Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order. Hyperion Press.
pp. 106–109. ISBN 0-786-86844-9.

3. "23.7: Small Oscillations" (https://phys.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Classical_Mechanics/Classi

cal_Mechanics_(Dourmashkin)/23%3A_Simple_Harmonic_Motion/23.07%3A_Small_Oscillation
s) . Physics LibreTexts. 2020-07-01. Retrieved 2022-04-21.

External links

Media related to Oscillation at Wikimedia Commons

Vibrations (http://www.lightandmatter.com/html_books/3vw/ch01/ch01.html) Archived (http

s://web.archive.org/web/20101214085654/http://lightandmatter.com/html_books/3vw/ch01/ch
01.html) 2010-12-14 at the Wayback Machine – a chapter from an online textbook