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( Oscillate)
Oscillation is the repetitive variation, typically in time, of some measure about a central value (often a point of equilibrium) or between two or more different states. Familiar examples include a swinging pendulum and AC power. The term vibration is sometimes used more narrowly to mean a mechanical oscillation but sometimes is used to be synonymous with "oscillation." Oscillations occur not only in physical systems but also in biological systems and in human society. Is the simplest mechanical oscillating system is a mass attached to a linear spring, subject to no other forces; except for the point of equilibrium, this system is equivalent to the same one subject to a constant force such as gravity. Such a system may be approximated on an air table or ice surface. The system is in an equilibrium state when the spring is unstretched. If the system is displaced from the equilibrium, there is a net restoring force on the mass, tending to bring it back to equilibrium. However, in moving the mass back to the equilibrium position, it has acquired momentum which keeps it moving beyond that position, establishing a new restoring force in the opposite sense. The time taken for an oscillation to occur is often referred to as the oscillatory period. The specific dynamics of this spring-mass system are described mathematically by the simple harmonic oscillator and the regular periodic motion is known as simple harmonic motion. In the spring-mass system, oscillations occur because, at the static equilibrium displacement, the mass has kinetic energy which is converted into potential energy stored in the spring at the extremes of its path. The spring-mass system illustrates some common features of oscillation, namely the existence of an equilibrium and the presence of a restoring force which grows stronger the further the system deviates from equilibrium. The harmonic oscillator offers a model of many more complicated types of oscillation and can be extended by the use of Fourier analysis.
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