View Full Version : Riddle on the hamonic oscillator


1100f
11-14-05, 10:01 PM
We all know that in 1 dimensional classical mechanics, a mass in the presence of a potential 1/2mw<sup>2</sup>x<sup>2</sup> will perform an harmonic motion with period 2&Pi;/w. The period is independent of the total energy.
Are there other potentials, where the period of the bound states does not depend of the energy?

Physics Monkey
11-15-05, 04:27 PM
Yes.

1100f
11-15-05, 05:04 PM
Did you find it in the same book that I found it?

Physics Monkey
11-15-05, 06:35 PM
No, I had never heard it before, very interesting though. I came up with a few counterexamples after I thought about it for a minute. Where did you read about it?

Woops, my answer was supposed to be in white above. Some of the simple ones I thought of were a half harmonic oscillator half infinite wall and an asymmetric harmonic oscillator (two different frequencies for x < 0 and x > 0).