What you will learn in Oscillations & Simple Harmonic Motion

1. 1. Defining Simple Harmonic Motion

   SHM's defining condition — a restoring force proportional to displacement — produces position, velocity, and acceleration equations locked in a fixed phase relationship.

2. 2. Springs & Hooke's Law

   A spring's force-vs-displacement line is Hooke's Law made visible, and it sets the oscillator's period entirely through k and mass.

3. 3. Simple Pendulum

   A pendulum's period depends only on length and gravity — until a large starting angle breaks the small-angle approximation.

4. 4. Physical Pendulum

   A real swinging body needs its own moment of inertia about the actual pivot, not a point mass at the end of a string.

5. 5. Energy in SHM

   Kinetic and potential energy trade off through every cycle, but their sum never changes in the undamped case.

6. 6. Damped Oscillations

   Real oscillators lose energy — underdamped, critically damped, and overdamped describe exactly how they settle.

7. 7. Resonance

   A driven oscillator's amplitude grows sharply as the driving frequency approaches its own natural frequency.

8. 8. Bridge to Wave Motion

   A row of synchronized SHM oscillators, offset in phase, is what a traveling wave actually is.