Introduction to Vibrations and Waves

The general objective of this chapter is to give an introduction to vibrations and waves (see, e.g., [5]). More specifically, the chapter also has the goal of recalling the basic mathematical apparatus necessary to read the book and to introduce the simple physical ideas and analogies that will be useful throughout the book. The model system used will be a simple oscillator, a mass connected to a spring, although a simple pendulum or any other similar system could have been used. For small displacements it will be seen that the oscillations are sinusoidal at a single frequency, so-called simple harmonic motion.