Distance Learning's Sample Lesson - page 1
Lessons 1-9 review the basics of vibration, emphasizing the one spring, one mass classical Single Degree of Freedom. Participants see that SDoF explains the "workings" of vibration pickups and electrodynamic shakers.
In later lessons, participants learn that more complex structures (including the cantilever beam "diving board" in the animation 10-1) have many resonances. They will learn that each resonance behaves very much like the SDoF resonance they learned about in Lessons 2 and 3.
Animation 10-1 Fundamental Mode of Cantilever Beam
Real cantilever beams don’t vibrate forever, do they? If you attached a metal strip to a table and plucked it, it would respond as does animation 10-1, but only for a few cycles. The oscillations would quickly die down, due to friction or damping in the metal as well as air friction.
If you wanted oscillations to die out more quickly, you could glue on some damping tape.
