Tutorial details

Section I: Applying Hooke’s law

This section involves a block attached to a spring, which is attached to a wall. A series of questions leads students to to write an expression for the acceleration of the block after it is released using Hooke’s law and Newton’s 2nd law.

Section II: Simple harmonic motion

The mass of the block is doubled. Students consider the effect this has on the net force, the acceleration, and the period of the motion of the block.

Section III: Energy of a simple harmonic oscillator

Starting with a graph of the total energy, students construct a graph of potential energy versus position on the same axes. They then use those graphs to construct a kinetic energy versus position graph.

Section IV: Supplement

This section offers challenging questions in which the setup of the experiment is modified. Students are asked about the effect these changes have on the energy graphs and the period.

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Prerequisite tutorials

The Newton's second and third laws and Conservation of energy tutorials are prerequisites to Simple harmonic motion.

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