Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.
Physics education research, electronic materials, and the musings of Christopher Moore, Ph.D.
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Here's my question. Why is the following example not considered simple harmonic motion?
Walking forwards, stopping for a second, walking backwards, stopping for a second and then repeating the cycle
Does this have something to do with the fact that the question doesn't specify how far the person walked forward and then back?
Last edited by fiecjk01 (2010-04-16 17:44:13)
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There is a couple of reasons a human in that situation cannot be in SHM. To be in SHM the SHO (simple harmonic oscillator) cannot be driven or damped, and the human is being 'driven' backwards and forwards by their own legs.
If you take a pendulum in a frictionless system, and lift the end weight up and to the side, then let go, it will be in SHM with nothing driving it beyond gravity and momentum, and the initial conditions are what predict its movement.
Also with the human, and assuming that the distance traveled each time is constant, their movement cannot be modeled with a sine graph of any kind, as they remain stationary for a second before walking back the way they'd come. A graph of that movement will give you a piecewise function, not a sinusoidal function.
Hope this helps
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