Two coupled oscillators - Normal modes etc
Consider two identical masses (denoted by m ) are attached with springs as
shown in the accompanying figure. The constants for the spring attaching
the mass to the wall is k while that for the spring in between the masses is
k 0 . The displacements for the left and right masses are respectively x and
x0 . Note that these two quantities can be of both signs ( i.e. positive and
negative ).
2
The total kinetic energy for the system is 12 mx 2 + 12 mx0 . Here x dx
dt etc.
The elastic potential energy for the leftmost and rightmost springs are
1
V1 + V3 = k(x2 + x02 )
2
while the corresponding potential energy for the middle spring is
1
V2 = k 0 (x x0 )2 .
2
Adding all three contributions one gets the net potential energy
1
V = (k + k 0 ) x2 + x02 k 0 xx0
2
Therefore the total energy of the system is
1 1 2 1
E = mx 2 + mx0 + (k + k 0 ) x2 + x02 k 0 xx0
2 2 2
As the system has energy conservation, the time derivative of energy will be
zero -
dE
x + mx0 x0 + (k + k 0 )(xx + x0 x0 ) k 0 (xx0 + x0 x)
= mx = 0.
dt
Rearranging slightly we can write
x + (k + k 0 )x k 0 x0 ) + x0 (mx0 + (k + k 0 )x0 k 0 x) = 0
x(m
1
Now the velocities x and x0 are independent - so we really have two inde-
pendent equations here:
mx + (k + k 0 )x k 0 x0 = 0
mx0 + (k + k 0 )x0 k 0 x = 0
Adding these two equations one gets
m x + x0 + k(x + x0 ) = 0
while taking their difference leads to
m x x0 + (k + 2k 0 )(x x0 ) = 0
0) 0)
Let us now redefine X (x+x
2
and X 0 (xx
2
. The 2 is not important
for now but let us keep it anyway.
In terms of these new variables the equations of motion for the system gets
decoupled -
+ k
X X=0
m
k + 2k 0 0
X 0 + X =0
m
Thus we see that, though in the original equation of motion x and x0 were
appearing together, the new variables X and X 0 are DECOUPLED. Thus
we say X and X 0 represents the normal mode
q of oscillation.
The frequency of X is seen to be m k
which is independent of k 0 .
This can understood easily if we set x = x0 X 0 = 0. In this mode, we see
that both the mass points oscillate in phase so the oscillation will look like
the following:
Note that the middle spring is neither squeezed nor stretched so it is not
surprising that the frequency is independent of k 0 .
2
To see what the other mode is - we play the opposite game , i.e. set
X = 0 x = x0 which says the two masses exactly oscillates out of phase
and thus will look like this:
It is also clear from the figure why there is a factor of 2 in front of the k 0 in
the expression for the concerned oscillation frequency.
To understand what is happening with the transformation to X and X 0
we solve for x and x0 in terms of X and X 0 :
1
x = X + X0
2
1
x0 = X X 0
2
2 2 2 02 0 1 2 02
x +x =X +X , xx = X X
2
and now look at the energy function:
m 2 2
k + k0 k0
E = X + X 0 + X 2 + X 2 (X 2 X 02 )
2 2 2
m k m 2 k + 2k 0
02
= X + X +
2 2
X 0 + X
2 2 2 2
which clearly shows the separation between the X and X 0 system.
So this is the generic behavior of Normal modes - the equations of motion
and the energy gets distributed in some linear combination of oscillations
which do not interact with each other and thus are independent.
Exercise
Repeat the same exercise as above if there are three mass points and the
two outer springs have constant k while the inner two springs have constant
k0 .
Identify the normal modes and their oscillation frequencies.