COMMENTS ON SECOND PROBLEM SET - FALL 2002 General: Depending on your approach, you might want to try Problem 2.3 before Problem 2.1; Problem 2.3 has partial answers in the back, so you can check to make sure you're doing this sort of problem properly. 2.1: The "small velocity-dependent air friction" should be taken to mean "underdamped," so if you, like me, treat this as a math problem instead of a physics problem, it will be tougher. For starters, assume that the answer to part (d) is real and positive. For part (e), you want to reproduce some but not all of what was done in lecture 9-16-2002. Assuming a "high-Q" oscillator will make life much simpler, but as I read the problem, there is no reason to assume that the driving frequency is close to the frequency of undamped, undriven oscillations. The important thing is to state clearly any assumptions you make. 2.2: French is rather sparing of details for this one (I think this is done on purpose). You'll have to make some asssumptions about the oscillator, and if you introduce notation not given in the problem, be clear about what you mean. 2.3: From the answer in the back, A(omega) diverges as omega goes to zero. You should be able to explain why. Parts (c) and the added part (d) require you to make plots, and this would be a great time to use some plotting program. Details on request. 2.4: Again, this is quite similar to the example done in lecture, but that example had the driving frequency much lower than the resonance frequency. Also, note that phase angles are not requested in any of the answers. It's easy enough to tell what the difference (phi - delta) is from the steady-state output, and delta _could_ be found from the determined values of k, omega and b, but that's not part of the problem as asked. You may recall from lecture 9-16-2002 that in doing a related example, Prof. Wyslouch indeed said something to the effect that the phases could be found, but he declined to do so. This more or less means you don't have to.