Simple harmonic motion

This course is a part of AP®︎ Physics 1, a 12-course Topic series from Khan Academy.

Have you ever watched a slinky gyrate back and forth? This is an example of harmonic motion, a special class of oscillatory motion. In this unit, we'll see how we can model and deal with this type of phenomena.

This course contains 4 segments:

Introduction to simple harmonic motion

In this lesson, we'll develop some intuition for what a simple harmonic oscillator is, why they oscillate, and how to analyze and model the motion of spring-mass systems and simple pendulums.

Simple harmonic motion in spring-mass systems

In this lesson, we'll learn more about how simple harmonic motion describes the motion of a mass on a spring.

Simple pendulums

In this lesson, we'll learn more about how simple harmonic motion describes the motion of a simple pendulum.

Energy in simple harmonic oscillators

In this lesson, we'll learn about how the total energy, potential energy, and kinetic energy of a simple harmonic oscillator change over time.