Consider an object going round in a circle at uniform speed.The y co-ordinate oscillates (with simple harmonic motion) between the top and bottom of the circle and is always equal to the radius multiplied by the sine of the angle between the point and the x axis, θ.If the object travels with uniform circular motion, the acceleration is equal to -v2/r and since v = rω then acceleration is given bya = -ω2rwhich is the equation for SHM.At any time t the displacement is given byx = A sin ωtwhere A is the amplitude, because ωt is the phase or part of the cycle it is in.
Simple Harmonic Motion and Circular Motion
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Specification: AQA Physics (7408), A-level, 3.6.1.2 Simple harmonic motion (SHM). Topic: Simple Harmonic Motion.
More in Simple Harmonic Motion
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- Phase Difference
- Simple Harmonic Motion
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- A Simple Pendulum
- Energy and Simple Harmonic Motion
- Damping
- Resonance
All 9 lessons in Simple Harmonic Motion · All AQA A-level Physics topics