Problems and Solutions Section 1.1 (1.1 through 1.

26)

1.1 Consider a simple pendulum (see Example 1.1.1) and compute the magnitude of the
restoring force if the mass of the pendulum is 3 kg and the length of the pendulum is 0.8 m.
Assume the pendulum is at the surface of the earth at sea level.

Solution: From example 1.1.1, the restoring force of the pendulum is , which has
maximum value

1.2 Compute the period of oscillation of a pendulum of length 1.2 m at the North Pole where the
acceleration due to gravity is measured to be 9.832 m/s2.
Solution: The natural frequency and period can be computed with the following
relationships:

1.3 The spring of Figure 1.2, repeated here as Figure P1.3, is loaded with mass of 10 kg and
the corresponding (static) displacement is 0.012 m. Calculate the spring's stiffness.
Solution:
From the free-body diagram and static
Free-body diagram:
equilibrium:
)

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1.4 The spring of Figure P1.3 is successively loaded with mass and the corresponding (static)
displacement is recorded below. Plot the data and calculate the spring's stiffness. Note
that the data contain some error. Also calculate the standard deviation.

m(kg) 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
x(m) 1.14 1.25 1.37 1.48 1.59 1.71 1.82

Solution:

Free-body diagram: From the free-body diagram and static

equilibrium:

The sample standard deviation in

computed stiffness is:

Plot of mass in kg versus displacement in m

Computation of slope from mg/x
m(kg) x(m) k(N/m)
10 1.14 86.05
11 1.25 86.33
12 1.37 85.93
13 1.48 86.17
14 1.59 86.38
15 1.71 86.05
16 1.82 86.24

1.5 Consider the pendulum of Example 1.1.1 and compute the amplitude of the
restoring force if the mass of the pendulum is 2 kg and the length of the pendulum is

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 0.5 m if the pendulum is at the surface of the moon.

Solution: From example 1.1.1, the restoring force of the pendulum is ,

which has maximum value
1.5

1.6 Consider the pendulum of Example 1.1.1 and compute the angular natural frequency
(radians per second) of vibration for the linearized system if the mass of the
pendulum is 3 kg and the length of the pendulum is 0.8 m if the pendulum is at the
surface of the earth. What is the period of oscillation in seconds?

Solution: The natural frequency and period are:

1.7 Derive the solution of and plot the result for at least two periods for the case with
ω n = 2 rad/s, x 0 = 1 mm, and v 0 = mm/s.

Solution:

Given:
(1)
Assume: . Then: and . Substitute into equation (1) to get:

Thus there are two solutions:

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The sum of x 1 and x 2 is also a solution so that the total solution is:

Substitute initial conditions: x 0 = 1 mm, v 0 = mm/s

Therefore the solution is:

Using Mathcad the plot is:

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1.8 Solve for k = 4 N/m, m = 1 kg, x 0 = 1 mm, and v 0 = 0. Plot the solution.

Solution: Here . Calculating the initial conditions:

x(t)= cos (2t )

The following plot is from Mathcad:

Alternately students may use equation (1.10) directly to get

1.9 The amplitude of vibration of an undamped system is measured to be 1.5 mm. The phase
shift from t = 0 is measured to be 2 rad and the frequency is found to be 10 rad/s.

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 Calculate the initial conditions that caused this vibration to occur. Assume the response
=
is of the form x(t ) A sin(ωnt + φ ).

Solution:

Given: ,

Setting t = 0 in the above expressions yields:

1.10 Determine the stiffness of a single-degree-freedom, spring-mass system with a mass of

80 kg such that the natural frequency is 12 Hz.

Solution: Given: Single-degree-freedom spring-mass system with

But,

First change Hertz to radians and then use the formula for natural frequency:

Solution:

1.11 Find the equation of motion for the system of Figure P1.11, and find the natural
frequency. In particular, using static equilibrium along with Newton’s law, determine
what effect gravity has on the equation of motion and the system’s natural frequency.
Assume the block slides without friction.

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 Figure P1.11

Solution:
Choosing a coordinate system along the plane with positive down the plane, the free-
body diagram of the system for the static case is given and (a) and for the dynamic case
in (b):

In the figures, N is the normal force and the components of gravity are determined by the
angle θ as indicated. From the static equilibrium: . Summing forces
in (b) yields:

1.12 An undamped system vibrates with a frequency of 8 Hz and amplitude 1.5 mm.
Calculate the maximum amplitude of the system's velocity and acceleration.

Solution:
Given: First convert Hertz to rad/s:

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 For an undamped system:

and differentiating yields the velocity:

Realizing that both the sin and cos functions have maximum values of 1 yields:

Likewise for the acceleration:

1.13 Show by calculation that A sin (ωn t + φ) can be represented as A 1 sin ωn t + A 2 cosωn t and
calculate A 1 and A 2 in terms of A and φ.

Solution:

This trig identity is useful:

Given:

1.14 Using the solution of equation (1.2) in the form

calculate the values of A 1 and A 2 in terms of the initial conditions x 0 and v 0 .

Solution:
Using the solution of equation (1.2) in the form

and differentiate to get:

Now substitute the initial conditions into these expressions for the position and velocity
to get:

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 Solving for A 1 and A 2 yields:

Thus

1.15 Using the drawing in Figure 1.7, verify that equation (1.10) satisfies the initial velocity
condition.

Solution: Following the lead given in Example 1.1.2, write down the general expression
of the velocity by differentiating equation (1.10):

From the figure:

Figure 1.7

Substitution of these values into the expression for v(0) yields

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 verifying the agreement between the figure and the initial velocity condition.

1.16 A 5 kg mass is attached to a linear spring of stiffness 0.1 N/m. a) Determine the natural
frequency of the system in hertz. b) Repeat this calculation for a mass of 50 kg and a
stiffness of 10 N/m. Compare your result to that of part a.

Solution: From the definition of frequency and equation (1.12)

(a)

(b) ,

1.17 Derive the solution of the single degree of freedom system of Figure 1.4 by writing
Newton’s law, ma = -kx, in differential form using adx = vdv and integrating twice.

Solution: Substitute a = vdv/dx into the equation of motion ma = -kx, to get mvdv = -
kxdx. Integrating yields:

Here c 2 is a second constant of integration that is convenient to write as c 2 = -φ/ωn .

Rearranging yields

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 in agreement with equation (1.19).

1.18 Determine the natural frequency of the two systems illustrated.

(a) (b)
Figure P1.18
Solution:
(a) Summing forces from the free-body diagram in the x direction yields:

Examining the coefficient of x

yields:
Free-body diagram for part a

(b) Summing forces from the free-body diagram in the x direction yields:

Free-body diagram for part b

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1.19* Plot the solution given by equation (1.10) for the case k = 1000 N/m and m = 10 kg for
two complete periods for each of the following sets of initial conditions: a) x 0 = 0 m, v 0 =
1 m/s, b) x 0 = 0.01 m, v 0 = 0 m/s, and c) x 0 = 0.01 m, v 0 = 1 m/s.

Solution: Here we use Mathcad:

a) all units in m, kg, s

parts b and c are plotted in the above by simply changing the initial conditions as
appropriate

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1.20* Make a three dimensional surface plot of the amplitude A of an undamped oscillator
given by equation (1.9) versus x 0 and v 0 for the range of initial conditions given by –0.1
< x 0 < 0.1 m and -1 < v 0 < 1 m/s, for a system with natural frequency of 10 rad/s.

Solution: Working in Mathcad the solution is generated as follows:

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1.21 A machine part is modeled as a pendulum connected to a spring as illustrated in Figure
P1.21. Ignore the mass of pendulum’s rod and derive the equation of motion. Then
following the procedure used in Example 1.1.1, linearize the equation of motion and
compute the formula for the natural frequency. Assume that the rotation is small enough
so that the spring only deflects horizontally.

Figure P1.21

Solution: Consider the free body diagram of the mass displaced from equilibrium:

There are two forces acting on the system to consider, if we take moments about point O
(then we can ignore any forces at O). This yields

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 Next consider the small θ approximations to that . Then the
linearized equation of motion becomes:

Thus the natural frequency is

1.22 A pendulum has length of 300 mm. What is the system’s natural frequency in Hertz?

Solution:
Given:
Assumptions: Small angle approximation of sinθ.
From Window 1.1, the equation of motion for the pendulum is:

The coefficient of θ yields the natural frequency as:

1.23 The pendulum in Example 1.1.1 is required to oscillate once every second. What length
should it be?

Solution:
Given: f = 1 Hz (one cycle per second)

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1.24 The approximation of sin θ = θ, is reasonable for θ less than 10°. If a pendulum of length
0.5 m, has an initial position of θ(0) = 0, what is the maximum value of the initial angular
velocity that can be given to the pendulum with out violating this small angle
approximation? (be sure to work in radians)

Solution: From Window 1.1, the linear equation of the pendulum is

For zero initial position, the solution is given in equation (1.10) by

since sin is always less then one. Thus if we need θ < 10°= 0.175 rad, then we need to
solve:

for v 0 which yields:

v 0 < 0.773 rad/s.

1.25 A machine, modeled as a simple spring-mass system, oscillates in simple harmonic motion. Its
acceleration is measured to have an amplitude of 5,000 mm/s2 with a frequency of 10 Hz.
Compute the maximum displacement the machine undergoes during this oscillation.

Solution: The equations of motion for position and acceleration are

and

Since sin is max at 1, the maximum acceleration is

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 Solving for A yields:

1.26 Derive the relationships given in Window 1.4 for the constants a 1 and a 2 used in the
exponential form of the solution in terms of the constants A 1 and A 2 used in sum of sine
and cosine form of the solution. Use the Euler relationships for sine and cosine in terms
of exponentials as given following equation (1.18).

Solution: Let θ = ωt for ease of notation. Then:

Adding these to in order to form x(t) yields:

Comparing this last expression to yields:

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