Can someone help me explain this paradox please.
A simple harmonic oscillator $ma=-kx$ is a system that oscillates in one dimension. But the text book says one-dimensional system can't oscillate. Why is that?? Thank you in advance.
Explain this paradox
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real-analysis
complex-analysis
discrete-mathematics
physics
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0I suspect you are quoting the text out of context. Perhaps you could supply more detail, or a link. – 2012-06-28
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0There's no detail. The really short section of the textbook just says one dimensional system can't oscillate. And the question use the simple harmonic oscillator ma= -kx to state that it oscillate in one dimension and just asks to explain the paradox. Thanks – 2012-06-28
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4If all the book does is say, "a one-dimensional system can't oscillate" then there is no paradox - the book is just wrong. But I'd really like to see what it says myself before I make any judgement on it. – 2012-06-28
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2Perhaps "one-dimensional" is used in two different senses here. The harmonic oscillator is two-dimensional in the sense that $a$ is the second derivative of $x$, giving you two constants of integration to work with. – 2012-06-28