1.

Why can't the amplitude of an oscillator be infinity?

Answer»

The driving force is continually adding energy to the oscillator because it is doing work on it. But if the oscillator is undamped that energy cannot escape so it GOES into continually increasing the amplitude of the oscillation. As long as the driving force is applied the amplitude of the oscillation will keep increasing.

In practice there is no such THING as a PERFECTLY undamped oscillator so the amplitude builds up until the rate of energy loss through DAMPING equals the rate the driving force is adding energy, then stabilises at that point.



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