Problems

5.33 ? The solution for x(t) for a driven, underdamped oscillator is most conveniently found in the form (5.69). Solve
that equation and the corresponding expression for x,
to give the coefficients B1 and B2 in terms of A, , and
the initial position and velocity x and v . Verify the expressions given in (5.70).
Solution:
Equation (5.69) is given by
x(t) = A cos(t ) + et [B1 cos(1 t) + B2 sin(1 t)]
p
where is the driven frequency and 1 = 2 2 . Applying the condition x(0) = x , we see that

(5.69)

x(0) = x = A cos() + B1 .
We see that B1 = x A cos(). Next, we need to differentiate equation (5.69) to find x which is
x(t)

= A sin(t ) et [B1 cos(1 t) + B2 sin(1 t)] + 1 et [B1 sin(1 t) + B2 cos(1 t)] .

Applying the condition x(0)

= v , we see that
x(0)

= v = A sin() B1 + 1 B2 .
Solving for B2 , we get
B2 =

1
(v + B1 A sin()) .
1

If we substitute for B1 , we get

B2 =

1
(v + x A cos() A sin())
1

B2 =

1
(v + x A [ cos() + sin()]) .
1

which we can rewrite as

Therefore, for B1 and B2 , we found

B1 = x A cos()

and B2 =

1
(v + x A [ cos() + sin()])
1

which matches equation (5.70) given by

B1 = x A cos()

and B2 =

1
(v A sin() + B1 ) .
1

(5.70)

5.38 ?? [Computer] Repeat the calculations of Example 5.3 (page 185) but take the parameters of the system to be
= = 1, = 0.1, and f = 0.4, with the initial conditions x = 0 and v = 6 (all in some appropriate
units). Find A and , and then B1 and B2 , and make a plot of x(t) for the first ten or so periods.
Solution:
Equation (5.64), which is given by
A2 =

f2
2

(2 2 ) + 4 2 2

(5.64)

allows us to calculate A, which is

s
A=

0.42
(12

2
12 )

+ 4(0.1)2 (1)2

= 2.

Equation (5.65), which is


= arctan

2
2
2


,

(5.65)

allows us to calculate , which is




2(0.1)(1)

= arctan
.
12 12
2
From Problem 5.33 or equation (5.70), we can calculate B1 and B2 , which are

=0
B1 = 0 2 cos
2
 i

h

1
B2 =
+ (1) sin
= 4.02.
6 (0.1)(0) 2 (0.1) cos
2
2
12 0.12
Therefore, we found that
A = 2,

,
2

B1 = 0,

and B2 = 4.020

which gives the following position equation based on equation (5.69),



x(t) = 2 sin(t) + (4.02)e0.1t sin t 0.99
and is plotted in Figure 1.

Position of a Driven Damped Oscillator

x(t)

2
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

-2
-4
-6
Figure 1: Plot of the position of a driven damped oscillator using the values given in the problem statement.
2

5.39 ?? [Computer] To get some practice at solving differential equations numerically, repeat the calculations of Example 5.3 (page 185), but instead of finding all the various coefficients just use the appropriate software (for
example, the NDSolve command of Mathematica) to solve the differential equation (5.48) with the boundary
conditions x = v = 0. Make sure your graph agrees with Figure 5.15.
Solution:
From Example 5.3, the values given to us were x = v = 0, = 2, = 5, = /20, and f = 1000. To
solve this example numerically, we had to consider the differential equation given in equation (5.57):
x
+ 2 x + 2 x = f cos(t).

(5.57)

Using python, this equation was solved numerically with a step size of t = 0.001 and is plotted in Figure 2.
The plot in Figure 2 matches the plot in the text in Figure 5.15. The python code for the numerical solution
is attached on the following page.

Position of a Driven Damped Linear Oscillator

1.5

x(t)

1.0
0.5
0.0

-0.5
-1.0
-1.5
Figure 2: Plot of the position of a driven damped oscillator using the values from Example 5.3. The above plot
matches the plot in Figure 5.15 of Classical Mechanics by John R. Taylor.

5.43 ?? When a car drives along a washboard road, the regular bumps cause the wheels to oscillate on the springs.
(What actually oscillates is each axle assembly, comprising the axle and its two wheels.) Find the speed of my
car at which this oscillation resonates, given the following information: (a) When four 80-kg men climb into
my car, the body sinks by a couple of centimeters. Use this to estimate the spring constant k of each of the four
springs. (b) If an axle assembly (axle plus two wheels) has a total mass 50 kg, what is the natural frequency
f of the assembly oscillating on its two springs? (c) If the bumps on a road are 80 cm apart, at about what
speed would these oscillations go into resonance?
Solution:
(a) For four 80-kg men, from Newtons second law, we can write
4kx = 4mp g
where mp = 80 kg. If we assume the displacement x is about 2 cm, we can find the spring constant k as
2

k=

mg
(80 kg)(10 m/s )

40000 N/m.
x
0.02 m

(b) The natural frequency f is given by

r
1
2k
f =
2 m
where m is the mass of an axle assembly. We need 2k because there are two springs per axle assembly.
Substituting values, we find that
1
f
2

2(40000 N/m)
6.366 Hz.
50 kg

(c) Resonance will occur when f = f where f is the frequency of the bumps.If we define d = 80 cm as the
distance between bumps, the time for the car to travel between two bumps (or maxima)
=

d
v

where v is the speed of the car. The time would be the period of the bumps, therefore the frequency is
f = 1/. For resonance, we know that f = f , so we can write
f =

v
.
d

Solving for v and substituting in values, we find the speed for resonance is
v = f d (6.366 Hz)(0.8 m) 5.093 m/s.

6.1 ? The shortest path between two points on a curved surface, such as the surface of a sphere, is called a geodesic.
To find a geodesic, one has to first set up an integral that gives the length of a path on the surface in question.
This will always be similar to the integral (6.2) but may be more complicated (depending on the nature of the
surface) and may involve different coordinates than x and y. To illustrate this, use spherical polar coordinates
(r, , ) to show that the length of a path joining two points on a sphere of radius R is
Z

q
1 + sin2 0 ()2 d

L=R

(6.41)

if (1 , 1 ) and (2 , 2 ) specify the two points and we assume that the path is expressed as = (). (You will
fond how to minimize this length in Problem 6.16.)
Solution:

Figure 3: Diagram to help determine the arclength across the surface of a sphere.
The definition of an angle in radians is given by
=

s
r

where s is the arclength subtended by the angle considering a distance of radius r. This means we can write
the angles and in a similar manner giving us
=

s
r

and =

s
.
r

Now if we consider small change in the angles of and , we would find that
d =

ds
s
2 dr
r
r

and d =

ds
s
2 dr .
r
r

Since we are considering a surface of a sphere we know that r and r are constant, giving us
d =

ds
r

and d =

ds
.
r

Now we must determine the values of r and r . If we look at Figure 3, we can easily see that r = R and that
r = R sin . Now if we solve for the arclength elements and substitute these radii in, we get
ds = R d

and ds = R sin d.

Since we are working with infinitesimal distances ds and ds , we can use the Pythagorean theorem and show
that the total arclength is given by
q
ds = ds2 + ds2 .
Substituting our values for the arclengths, we get
q
ds = R2 d2 + R2 sin2 d2 .
Next if we factor out d and R, we get
ds = R
where 0 () =

d
d .

1 + sin2 0 ()2 d

Now if we want to find the arclength between two points, we need to integrate ds, giving us
Z

s2

L=

ds = R
s1

which matches equation (6.41).

1 + sin2 0 ()2 d

6.2 ? Do the same as in Problem 6.1 but find the length L of a path on a cylinder of radius R, using cylindrical polar
coordinates (, , z). Assume that the path is specified in the form = (z).
Solution:

Figure 4: Diagram to help determine the arclength across the surface of a cylinder.
The definition of an angle in radians is given by
s
r
where s is the arclength subtended by the angle considering a distance of radius r. This means we can write
the angles in a similar manner giving us
s
=
.
r
Now if we consider small change in the angle of , we would find that
=

d =

ds
s
2 dr .
r
r

Since we are considering a surface of a cylinder, we know that r is constant and r = = R if we look at
Figure 4, giving us
ds
d =
.
R
Solving for d , we get
ds = R d.
Since we are working with infinitesimal distances dz and ds , we can use the Pythagorean theorem and show
that the total arclength is given by
q
ds = dz 2 + ds2 .
Substituting our value for ds , we get
ds =

p
dz 2 + R2 d2 .

Next if we factor out dz, we get

ds =
where 0 (z) =

d
dz .

1 + R2 0 (z)2 dz.

Now if we want to find the arclength between two points, we need to integrate ds, giving us
Z s2
Z z2 p
L=
ds =
1 + R2 0 (z)2 dz.
s1

z1