Question

A simple harmonic oscillator has an amplitude A and time period T. The time require by it to travel from x = A to x = A/2 is ___________

(a) T/6

(b) T/4

(c) T/3

(d) T/2

I got this question in unit test.

This interesting question is from Oscillations topic in section Oscillations of Engineering Physics I

Answer 1

Right answer is (a) T/6

To explain: As the oscillator starts from x=A, we can take

x=acosωt

a/2=acos⁡(2πt/T)

cos⁡(2πt/T)=1/2=cos⁡(π/6)

2πt/T=π/6

or t=T/6.