Why a simple oscillator such as spring-mass system has only allowed frequency whereas a vibrating spring has infinite number of frequency?Fig: Vibrating springs with certain number of elements
In the block-spring system, the inertia is concentrated in a single element of the system which is the block, but in the string the inertia is distributed throughout the system. Similarly, the elasticity of the block-spring system is lumped in one element ( spring) but in the vibrating spring it is distributed throughout the system. Although there is only one way for the block-spring system to store kinetic and potential energy, the vibrating spring has an infinite number of ways to store its...