Forest UCM Osc Driven

Damped Oscillators driven by an external source

An external force must be supplied to do work on a damped oscillator in an amount that is equal to or greater than the work done by the dissipative force.

An external force (source) is added to the homogeneous differential equation making it inhomogenous

[math] \ddot x + 2 \beta \dot x + \omega^2_0x = 0[/math]

making it

[math] \ddot x + 2 \beta \dot x + \omega^2_0x = f(t)[/math]

where f(t) represents the external force (source) that depends on time divided by the objects mass.

Differential equations in Operator form

In the previous sections we used the definition

[math]O = \frac{d}{dt}[/math]

to solve the second order linear differential equation.

Let's take this a step further with the following operator definition

[math]D = \frac{d^2}{dt^2} + 2 \beta \frac{d}{dt} + \omega^2_0[/math]

then

[math] \ddot x + 2 \beta \dot x + \omega^2_0x = f(t)[/math]

becomes

[math] D x = f(t)[/math]

Linear differential equations have coefficient that can constant or variable coefficients that can be transformed into constant coefficients.

Forest_UCM_Osc#Damped_Oscillations_with_driving_source