Angel Franco Garcia
This student activity uses a Java applet to show the relationship between simple harmonic motion and constant velocity circular motion. The applet features three parts: 1) A particle undergoing circular motion at a constant rate; 2) The same particle on a vertical spring; and 3) A graph that plots the time evolution of the system, resulting in a sine wave.
Editor's Note: This resource is especially appropriate for high school physics, as it contains step-by-step instructions and a question set designed to probe student understanding. It gives the beginning student a highly visual pathway to see how the acceleration vectors of the two particles are related, which will be beneficial when they learn to calculate angular frequency.
This is part of a larger collection of applet-based learning activities.
%0 Electronic Source %A Walkup, John %D October 21, 2007 %T Web Assignments: Harmonic Oscillator I %V 2014 %N 25 October 2014 %8 October 21, 2007 %9 application/java %U http://www.nhn.ou.edu/walkup/demonstrations/WebAssignments/HarmonicMotion001.htm
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