Elasticity and Oscillations

Intrinsic Strength of
Materials
Hanging by a hair
Can a single hair
support
your weight? Steel wire?
A hair, cable etc. can hold
more weight if it has
greater cross section.

Intrinsic Strength of
Materials
Would we build a suspension bridge
from Rapunzals hair?

Steel cable is intrinsically stronger than ha

Intrinsic Strength of
Materials
Compare strength of materials:
consider not just how much weight
they can support
but how much weight for a given
cross section

F/A.
Stress = F/A

Hookes Law
F=-kx
F

Apply a force to both ends of a long wire.

These forces will stretch the wire from length
L to L+L.

F = kL
5

Strain

If we pull on a spring it increases in length

If we pull on a wire increases in length.
Longer wires (and springs) will stretch more
short ones

Define
:
L
strain
L

The fractional
change in length

F
stress
A

Force per unit

cross-sectional
area

Hookes Law (Fx) can be written in

terms of stress and strain (stress
strain).
F
L

The spring constant k is now

(F=kx)

YA
k
L

Y is called Youngs modulus and is a

measure of an objects stiffness.
Hookes Law holds for an object to a
point called the proportional limit.
8

Example (text problem 10.7): A 0.50 m long

guitar string, of cross-sectional area 1.0106
m2, has a Youngs modulus of 2.0109 Pa. By
how much must you stretch a guitar string to
obtain a tension of 20 N?

F
L
Y
A
L
20.0 N
F L
L
6
2
A Y 1.0 10 m
5.0 10 3 m 5.0 mm

0.5 m

9
2
2.0 10 N/m

Beyond Hookes Law

If the stress on an object exceeds the elastic
limit, then the object will not return to its
original length.
An object will fracture if the stress exceeds
the breaking point. The ratio of maximum
load to the original cross-sectional area is
called tensile strength.
The ultimate strength of a material is the
maximum stress that it can withstand before
breaking.
10

Example (text problem 10.10): An acrobat of

mass 55 kg is going to hang by her teeth
from a steel wire and she does not want the
wire to stretch beyond its elastic limit. The
elastic limit for the wire is 2.5108 Pa. What
is the minimum diameter the wire should
have to support her?

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Simple Harmonic Motion

What is motion of the cart

if we move it slightly?
a)Stable repeats, oscillates
b)Gone!
c)How do we describe a)?

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Oscillations
Time it takes for the ball to roll down, up
opposite side, down and back is the period

T is the time to complete one full cycle.

Equivalent information is
number of cycles in one second ,frequency f.
e.g. T= 1/10 f = 10; T = 5 f= 1/5
f=1/T T = 1/f
Frequency is measured in Hertz = 1 cycle
/second

We can plot the position of the

ball as a function of time. A is
the distance from the bottom of
the cup.

15

Simple Harmonic Motion

Simple harmonic motion

(SHM) occurs when the
restoring force (the force
directed toward a stable
equilibrium point) is
proportional to the
displacement from
equilibrium.
16

The motion of a mass on a spring is an

example of SHM.
Equilibrium
position

x
x

The restoring force is F = kx.

17

Assuming the table is frictionless:

kx ma x

k
a x t x t
m
Also,

1
1
2
2
E t K t U t mv t kx t
2
2

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At the equilibrium point x = 0 so a = 0 too.

When the stretch is a maximum, a will be a
maximum too.

The velocity at the end points will be zero, and it

is a maximum at the equilibrium point.
19

Representing Simple Harmonic

Motion

When a mass-spring system is oriented

vertically, it will exhibit SHM with the same
period and frequency as a horizontally
placed system.

20

SHM
graphicall
y

21

t=0: m starts with

x=A, v=0 and a
negative.
As soon as m
released v
becomes negative.

t=1/4 T: equilibrium
x=0, v max(-), a=0
t= T: x=-A, v=0
a positive, begins
+ motion
t= T: x=0
equilibrium v max
(+), a=0
t= T; back at the

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Simple Harmonic Motion

The x graph looks like a cosine

x= A cos(2t/T)
A is maximum displacement, =2/T
The v graph also is SHO
v = vmax sint
vmax should get larger if A is large ( fixed)
vmax should get larger if is large (A fixed)
Vmax ~A

kx ma x

k
a x t x t
m

1
1
2
2
E t K t U t mv t kx t
2
2
1
1 2
2
E t kx t kA
At endpoints v=0, x max
2
2
1
1
2
2

E
t

mv
t

mv
max
At equilibrium x=0 v max 2
2

v2max =k/m A2
k

v= k/m A
a =-2 x
24

A simple harmonic oscillator can be described

mathematically by:
x t A cos t
x
v t
A sin t
t
v
a t
A 2 cos t
t

Or by:
x t A sin t
x
v t
A cos t
t
v
a t
A 2 sin t
t

where A is the
amplitude of the
motion, the
maximum
displacement from
equilibrium, A =
vmax, and A2 =
amax.
25

The period of
oscillation is

2
T
.

where is the angular

frequency of the oscillations, k
is the spring constant and m is
the mass of the block.

k
m

26

Example (text problem 10.30): The period of

oscillation of an object in an ideal mass-spring
system is 0.50 sec and the amplitude is 5.0 cm.
What is the speed at the equilibrium point?
At equilibrium x =
0:

1 2 1 2 1 2
E K U mv kx mv
2
2
2
Since E = constant, at equilibrium (x =
0) the KE must be a maximum. Here v
= vmax = A.
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Example continued:

The amplitude A is given, but is not.

2
2

12.6 rads/sec
T
0.50 s
and v A 5.0 cm 12.6 rads/sec 62.8 cm/sec

28

Question
A mass on a spring has amplitude A. If
A is doubled, the total energy of the
system is:
A) doubled.
B) quadrupled.
C) the same.
D) halved.
E) 1/4 as much.

Example (text problem 10.41): The diaphragm

of a speaker has a mass of 50.0 g and
responds to a signal of 2.0 kHz by moving
back and forth with an amplitude of 1.8104
m at that frequency.
(a) What is the maximum force acting on the
diaphragm?

F F

max

mamax

m A mA 2f
2

4 mAf
2

The value is Fmax=1400 N.

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(b) What is the mechanical energy of the

diaphragm?
Since mechanical energy is conserved, E = Kmax =
Umax.
U max
K max

1 2
kA
2
1 2
mvmax
2

The value of k is unknown so use

Kmax.
1 2
1
1
2
2
K max mvmax m A mA2 2f
2
2
2

The value is Kmax=

0.13 J.
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Example (text problem 10.47): The

displacement of an object in SHM is given by:
y t 8.00 cm sin 1.57 rads/sec t
What is the frequency of the
oscillations?

Comparing to y(t) = A sint gives A = 8.00

cm and = 1.57 rads/sec. The frequency is:
1.57 rads/sec
f

0.250 Hz
2
2

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Example continued:

Other quantities can also be determined:

The period of the
motion is

2
2
T

4.00 sec
1.57 rads/sec

xmax A 8.00 cm

vmax A 8.00 cm 1.57 rads/sec 12.6 cm/sec

amax A 2 8.00 cm 1.57 rads/sec 19.7 cm/sec 2
2

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