Homework 2
PHY 315: Wave Motion and Optics
Due: At the beginning of class, Thursday 11th February 2016
Instructions
You are permitted to work in groups or search the internet as long as the solution presented here is
in your own words and you understand it clearly. Please credit your collaborators or reference
material wherever applicable.
There might be excess data provided in the problems. Data should not be insufficient, though. For
full credit, your final answer must be expressed completely in terms of the given variables.
For full credit, your solution should show a clear understanding of both the physics and the
mathematical steps leading to the solution. If you use any software (eg: Mathematica, Maxima,
python...), please show your code.
Please print your full name clearly on your homework.
You are encouraged to present your answers in a legible, succinct manner, accompanied by neat figures
whenever necessary; this facilitates speedy and fair evaluation and will help us (the TAs) help you
better.
Each problem is worth 10 points
Most importantly, have fun doing the homework, and enjoy!
Note: This problem set uses the more standard, although less intuitive, terminology for the regimes of the
damped harmonic oscillator: underdamped is the same as light damping (section 2.2.1), and overdamped is
the same as heavy damping (section 2.2.2).
Problem 1: Relating Damped and Undamped Frequencies
A simple harmonic oscillator with no damping has an angular frequency 0 . Upon adding a small amount
of friction (could be done, for example, by pumping air into a vacuum chamber), it is observed that the
amplitude of this oscillator decreases to 1/2 of its initial value after n oscillations. Recall that the angular
frequency of the oscillator is affected by the presence of damping. Express the angular frequency of
the damped oscillator in terms of 0 and n. Assume that n 1 and employ a leading-order binomial
approximation that further simplifies your expression for .
Note: For those that may have forgotten, the leading-order binomial approximation is (1 + x) 1 + x
when x 1.
Problem 2: Complex Exponentials
These problems are intended to familiarize you with operations involving complex exponentials.
Part 1: Show that ei = cos + i sin . For full credit, it suffices to show the result for real using a Taylor
expansion as shown in recitation session.
Part 2: Compute all possible values of ii , where i =
1.
Hint for Part 2: To find the principal value, express the base i in polar form (i.e. in the rei form).
Then, use the rules of exponentiation to compute ii . To find the other values, observe that the same number
represented by rei is also represented by rei(+2m) for any integer m.
Problem 3: Fluid friction
In 1851, the famous physicist and mathematician G. G. Stokes wrote a paper studying the effect of fluid
friction on the motion of pendulums. In this paper, he derived the well-known Stokes law. The derivation
of the Stokes law is complicated business, but its application to the damping of a pendulum is not, which is
the subject of this problem.
Stokes law for a small, slowly moving sphere in a viscous fluid states that the drag force F~d acting on the
sphere is given by F~d = 6r~v , where is the so-called dynamic viscosity of the fluid, r is the radius of
the sphere, and ~v is the velocity of the sphere. One can use a pendulum to measure . Consider a pendulum
constructed from a thin wire of length l and a ball of radius r and mass m, with the ball sitting in a vat of
fluid (assume small angle displacements and no drag from the portion of the wire in the fluid). The amplitude
of oscillations of the pendulum is observed to slowly decay in the form of A(t) = A0 et (t denotes time).
Given an experimentally-determined value of , find an expression that you can use to compute , i.e. find
an expression for in terms of m, r, and .
Problem 4: Overdamped oscillator
Express the displacement x(t) and the velocity x(t)
for the overdamped oscillator in terms of hyperbolic
cosine and sine functions. Express the arbitrary coefficients multiplying of the hyperbolic functions in terms
of A and B of equation 2.13 in the textbook.
