A Qualitative Analysis to Simple Harmonic Motion

Abstract

This paper proposes a qualitative analysis to the simple harmonic motion for students who are not mathematically well-prepared. It uses the variation in speed and acceleration to sketch the velocity-time curve. The curve appears to be sinusoidal, whose shape is largely determined by the fact that the gradient of a velocity-time graph is acceleration. This approach cannot determine the exact value of period and claim the curve to be sinusoidal, however, it complements rigorous mathematical analysis in that it is full of physical reasoning that the mathematical approaches lack of.