In a damped harmonic oscillator, if the damping coefficient is increased, what happens to the amplitude of oscillation?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a damped harmonic oscillator, if the damping coefficient is increased, what happens to the amplitude of oscillation?
Increases
Decreases
Remains the same
Becomes zero
In a damped harmonic oscillator, increasing the damping coefficient results in a decrease in the amplitude of oscillation over time.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: In a damped harmonic oscillator, if the damping coefficient is increased, what happens to the amplitude of oscillation?
Solution: In a damped harmonic oscillator, increasing the damping coefficient results in a decrease in the amplitude of oscillation over time.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what a damped harmonic oscillator is. It is a system that oscillates (moves back and forth) but loses energy over time due to damping (like friction).
Step 2: Identify the damping coefficient. This is a number that tells us how much damping is present in the system. A higher number means more damping.
Step 3: Recognize that when the damping coefficient is increased, the system loses energy more quickly.
Step 4: Realize that as energy is lost faster, the oscillations become smaller in size, which means the amplitude (the height of the oscillation) decreases.
Step 5: Conclude that increasing the damping coefficient leads to a decrease in the amplitude of oscillation over time.
