©Pusat Asasi Sains Pertanian, UPM

Chapter 9 (Simple Harmonic Motion and Waves)

1. A loudspeaker diaphragm is producing a sound by moving back and forth in a simple harmonic
motion. The angular frequency of the motion is 8.02×104 rad s-1. How many times does the
diaphragm move back and forth in 1 minute?
[7.66×107 min-1]
2. Atoms in a solid are not stationary, but vibrate about their equilibrium positions. Typically, the
frequency of vibration is about 2.0×1012 Hz and the amplitude is about 1.2×10-11 m. for a typical
atom, what is it
a. maximum speed?
b. maximum acceleration?
[24 ms-1; 48×1012 ms-2]
3. A block of 0.75 kg mass is fastened to an unstrained horizontal spring whose spring constant is
8.0 Nm-1. The block is stretched 15 cm from its initial position and then release from rest to
perform a simple harmonic motion.
a. What is the force (magnitude and direction) that the spring exerts on the block just before the
block is released?
b. Find the angular frequency of the resulting oscillatory motion.
c. What is the maximum speed of the block?
d. Determine the magnitude of the maximum acceleration of the block.
[1.2 N (to centre); 3.27 rad s-1; 0.49 ms-1; 1.60 ms-2]
4. An object of mass 60 g is attached to one end of a spring and the system is set into simple
harmonic motion. Using the displacement x of the object as a function of time shown in Figure 1,
determine the
a. amplitude of the motion.
b. angular frequency.
c. spring constant.
d. speed and acceleration of the object at 1.0 second.

x (cm)
+40

Figure 1
0 t (s)
1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

-40

[40 cm; 0.25 s-1; 0.15 Nm-1; 0 ms-1; 0.99 ms-2]

5. A 30 g block attached to a horizontal spring constant of 125 Nm-1 is resting on a horizontal
frictionless surface. The block is then parallel to the spring axis so as to give the block an initial
speed of 8.0 ms-1. What is the amplitude of the resulting simple harmonic motion?
[12.4 cm]
6. A horizontal spring on a frictionless surface with one end of the spring is attached to a wall while
the other end is connected to a movable object. The spring and object are compressed by 6 cm,
released from rest and subsequently oscillate back and forth with an angular frequency of
12 rad s-1. What is the speed of the object at the instant when the spring is stretched by 4 cm
relative to its unstrained length?
[0.54 ms-1]

I.M. Noor
 ©Pusat Asasi Sains Pertanian, UPM

7. 1.2 kg object is suspended from a vertical spring whose spring constant is 180 Nm-1.
a. Find the amount by which the spring is stretched from its unstretched length.
b. The object is pulled straight down by an additional distance of 16 cm and released from rest.
Find the speed at which the object passes through its original unstretched position.
[6.5 cm; 4.68 ms-1]
8. A longitudinal wave with frequency of 3.0 Hz takes 1.7 s to travel the length of a distance of
2.5 m. Determine the wavelength of the wave.
[0.49 m]
9. Tsunamis are fast-moving waves often generated by underwater earthquakes. In the deep ocean
their amplitude is barely noticeable, but upon reaching shore, they can rise up to more than 15 m.
the tsunami in 2006 at Acheh was estimated had a wavelength of 600 km and traveled a distance
of 540 km in 1 hour. Find the waves’s frequency and period.
[2.5×10-4 s-1; 1.11 h]
8 -1
10. Light is an electromagnetic wave and travels at a speed of 3×10 ms . What is the frequency of
the laser light that has a wavelength of 6.56×10-7 m?
[4.57×1014 s-1]
11. The human ear can detect sound of frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. The speed of
sound in air is about 343 ms -1. What is the range of wavelength for audible sound?
[17.2 mm to 17.2 m]
12. The displacements (in meters) of a particle in a travelling wave is given according to
y  0.25 sint  3x  , where t is in seconds and x in meters.
a. Is the wave travelling in the +x or –x direction?
b. What is the displacement and speed of the particle when t = 15 s and x = 0.4 m?
[-0.147 m; 0.635 ms-1]
13. A wave travelling in the +x direction has an amplitude of 0.55 m, a speed of 6.0 ms -1 and a
frequency of 15 Hz. Write the equation of the wave.
[y = 0.55 sin (30πt-5πx)]
14. The drawing shows two graphs that represent a transverse wave on a string. The wave is moving
in the +x direction. Using the information contained in these graph, write the mathematical
expression for the wave.
y (m) y (m)
At x = 0
+0.4 At t = 0 +0.4

0 x (m) 0 t (s)
0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 5 10 15 20
-0.4 -0.4

[y = 0.4 sin(0.2πt-5πx)]
15. A traveling waves is represented by the equation y  2 sin10t  5x  where t is in second and x
in cm. Determine its
a. period.
b. wavelength.
c. speed.
[0.63 s; 1.26 cm; 2 cm s-1]

I.M. Noor
 ©Pusat Asasi Sains Pertanian, UPM

16. Figure 2 shows the graphical representation of the same wave traveling in the +x-axis.
y (cm) y (cm)
+2 +2

0 x (m) 0 t (s)
5 10 15 20 10 20 30 40
-2 -2

Figure 2

a. What are its amplitude, wavelength, wave number, period, frequency and angular frequency.
b. Calculate its speed.
c. Write down its wave equation.
[2 cm; 10 m; 0.5π m-1; 20 s; 0.05 Hz; 0.1π rad s-1; 0.5 ms-1; y = 2 sin(0.1πt-0.5πx)]
17. A 50 g mass vibrates in a simple harmonic motion at the end of a spring. The amplitude of the
motion is 12.0 cm and the period is 1.6 s. Find the
a. spring constant.
b. maximum speed and maximum acceleration of the mass.
c. speed and the acceleration when x = 6.0 cm.
[0.77 Nm-1; 0.44 ms-1; 0.47 ms-2; 0.10 ms-1; 0.46 ms-2]
18. A 250 g particle attached to a spring undergoes simple harmonic motion according to the equation
x  0.125 cos16t  where x is in m and t in second. Find the
a. equation for the acceleration as a function of time.
b. total energy if the system.
c. kinetic energy when the particle is at x = 0.08 m.
[y = 0.125 cos(16t); 0.5 J; 0.3 J]

I.M. Noor