Introduction

The acceleration of a simple harmonic oscillator over time can be described using a spring

constant, mass of oscillator, and displacement from equilibrium. This is essentially Hooke’s law.

Determining the motion of a simple harmonic oscillator is simple because a simple harmonic

oscillator only involves one degree of freedom. Coupled oscillators are oscillators with multiple

degrees of freedom. These oscillators may include anything from a two mass 3 spring system

to a wilberforce pendulum. Though these systems seem complicated at first glance, Dr.

Pontius’s Classical Mechanics class and Dr. Rupright’s Computational class have taught that it

is easy to calculate motion of systems with multiple degrees of freedom using the Lagrangian.

We described in detail the Lagrangian approach when we conducted a research project on

coupled oscillators in Dr. Rupright’s Computational Science class. Since we have already

approached the problem using the Lagrangian in our comp presentation, and Classical

Mechanics has spent a lot of time already on using Lagrangians, we decided to focus on solving

the equations of motion using eigenvalues. We will only focus on forces that obey Hooke’s law

and have linear equations of motion. While this is a simplification, it is often very useful in real

life applications.

Discussion

The use of eigenvalues is a useful, alternative approach to using the Lagrangian approach. The

first simplest application of the eigenvalues is with a multiple spring mass system. The origins

of the eigenvalue approach arise from Hooke’s Law as shown below.

Insert Hooke’s Law for Simple Harmonic Oscillator

The equation above is the standard Hooke’s Law for the force acting on a spring with one

degree of freedom. To attack spring problems with multiple degrees of freedom, the simple

Hooke’s needs to be slightly modified.

Insert Equation 11.3

 ⃗⃗ 𝑥̈ = −𝐾
𝑀 ⃗𝑥

It can be seen that mass has been replaced by M, the mass matrix. Also the spring constant

has been replaced by the “spring-constant matrix” K, as well as the position x, the position

vector representing the position of the different masses in the spring mass system. We can see

that equation 11.3 exhibits the same characteristics as the standard Hooke’s Law

equation. The spring-constant matrix and the mass matrix are defined below.

Notice that the mass matrix is that identity matrix multiplied by a mass vector, and the spring-

constant matrix is a unique matrix with entries consisting of combinations of the individual spring

constants within the system.

Insert equation 11.5

⃗⃗ = [𝑚1
𝑀
0
]
0 𝑚2

⃗ = [𝑘1 + 𝑘2
𝐾
−𝑘2
]
−𝑘2 𝑘2 + 𝑘3

Basically we need to summarize pages 419-420-

Eigenvalues

Insert Generalized function

The general eigenvalue equation for coupled harmonic oscillators is:

Insert equation 11.11

⃗ − 𝜔2 𝑀
(𝐾 ⃗⃗ )𝑎 = 0

If

Insert equation 11.12

⃗ − 𝜔2 𝑀
𝑑𝑒𝑡 ((𝐾 ⃗⃗ )) = 0

Then there exists a solution of the equations of motion.

Talk about how to do determinate-

eigenvectors
Normal frequencies
Normal modes
Identical springs and equal masses.
Consider now another system of two masses and three springs, but the two masses are equal,
and the three spring constants are equal. So the spring-constant matrix and the mass matrix are
defined below as:
Insert eqn. 11.13
⃗⃗ = [𝑚
𝑀
0
]
0 𝑚

⃗ = [𝑘 + 𝑘
𝐾
−𝑘
]=[
2𝑘 −𝑘
]
−𝑘 𝑘+𝑘 −𝑘 2𝑘

The eigenvalue equation is then:

Inset eqn. 11.14

2
⃗⃗ ) = 𝑑𝑒𝑡 [2𝑘 − 𝑚𝜔
⃗ − 𝜔2 𝑀
𝑑𝑒𝑡(𝐾 −𝑘 ] =
−𝑘 2𝑘 − 𝑚𝜔2

Two weakly coupled oscillators

The double pendulum using eigenvalues???
.
Data Results
Figure 1: position vs time graph of a coupled harmonic oscillator with 2 equal masses attached by three

equal springs with starting positions pulled equally apart

Figure 2: phase plot two equal masses three equal springs

Two weakly coupled oscillators

Figure 3: position vs time graph with two equal masses and a very weak middle coupling (spring).
Figure 4: Weak coupling phase plot of right mass

Future Work

Sources
http://users.physics.harvard.edu/~schwartz/15cFiles/Lecture3-Coupled-Oscillators.pdf

Schwartz, Matthew. “Lecture 3: Coupled Oscillations.” Physics Harvord.

users.physics.harvard.edu/~schwartz/15cFiles/Lecture3-Coupled-Oscillators.pdf.

Taylor, John R. Classical Mechanics. University Science Books, 2002.

http://fweb.wallawalla.edu/class-
wiki/index.php/Coupled_Oscillator:_Double_Pendulum#Problem_Statement Double pendulum
http://courses.washington.edu/ph227814/227/ellis/Phys_227_08_Lec_9.pdf eigenvalues