Mechanical Oscillators

There are many types of mechanical oscillators. They can be found everywhere around us, including in parts of the human body. Some examples of simple mechanical oscillators include simple pendulums, where the restoring force is gravity, springs, where the restoring force is the spring force, bending beams, where the restoring force comes from the elasticity of the beam's material, and torsion shafts, where the restoring force results from the elasticity of the shaft's material. These oscillators exhibit simple harmonic motion, which is a type of motion where the restoring force is proportional to the displacement from the equilibrium position and acts in the opposite direction of that displacement. One of the most important experiments in understanding simple harmonic motion was conducted by French physicist Jean Bernard Leon Foucault, who demonstrated Earth's rotation using a pendulum. By swinging a heavy iron ball from a wire more than 61 meters in length, Foucault was able to show that the Earth rotates on its axis.