Summarizing Hooke’s Law: Stress and Strain Revisited

Summary

• An oscillation is a back and forth motion of an object between two points of deformation.
• An oscillation may create a wave, which is a disturbance that propagates from where it was created.
• The simplest type of oscillations and waves are related to systems that can be described by Hooke’s law:

  \(F=-\text{kx},\)

  where \(F\) is the restoring force, \(x\) is the displacement from equilibrium or deformation, and \(k\) is the force constant of the system.

• Elastic potential energy \({\text{PE}}_{\text{el}}\) stored in the deformation of a system that can be described by Hooke’s law is given by

  \({\text{PE}}_{\text{el}}=(1/2){\mathit{\text{kx}}}^{2}.\)

Glossary

deformation

displacement from equilibrium

elastic potential energy

potential energy stored as a result of deformation of an elastic object, such as the stretching of a spring

force constant

a constant related to the rigidity of a system: the larger the force constant, the more rigid the system; the force constant is represented by k

restoring force

force acting in opposition to the force caused by a deformation