Simple Harmonic Oscillations
 

Simple Harmonic Oscillations problem 42


A dish is made from a section of a hollow glass sphere. The dish, fixed to a horizontal table, contains a small solid ball of mass , as shown in the figure below.




The horizontal displacement of the ball from the centre C of the dish is . Initially, the ball is held at rest with distance . The ball is then released. The variation with time of the horizontal displacement of the ball from point C is shown in the graph below.




The motion of the ball in the dish is simple harmonic with its acceleration given by the expression




where is the acceleration of free fall and is a constant that depends on the dimensions of the dish and the ball.


  • Use the graph above to show that the angular frequency of oscillation of the ball in the dish is .


  • Use the information in (a) to:


    • determine


    • calculate the speed of the ball as it passes over the centre C of the dish.


 

main author and content editor: Ebenezer Famadewa