Mass-spring System

Before modeling this mechanical vibrating system, let's review some acoustics, and mechanical vibration.

The simplest oscillator is the mass-spring system:

• a horizontal spring fixed at one end with a mass connected to the other.

Figure 1: An ideal mass-spring system.

The motion of an object can be describe in terms of its

1. displacement $x(t)$
2. velocity $v(t) = \displaystyle{\frac{dx}{dt}}$
3. acceleration $a(t) = \displaystyle{\frac{dv}{dt} = \frac{d^2x}{dt^2}}$