An automobile with a mass of 1000 kg, including passengers, settles 1.0 cm closer to the road for every additional 100 kg of passengers. It is driven with a constant horizontal component of speed 20 km/h over a washboard road with sinusoidal bumps. The amplitude and wavelength of the sine curve are 5.0 cm and 20 cm, respectively. The distance between the front and back wheels is 2.4 m. Find the amplitude of oscillation of the automobile, assuming it moves vertically as an undamped driven harmonic oscillator. Neglect the mass of the wheels and springs and assume that the wheels are always in contact with the road.

What conditions must be met to produce SHM?

We do not need the analogy in Equation 16.30 to write expressions for the translational displacement of a pendulum bob along the circular arc s(t), translational speed v(t), and translational acceleration a(t). Show that they are given by s(t) = smax cos (smpt + ) v(t) = vmax sin (smpt + ) a(t) = amax cos(smpt + ) respectively, where smax = max with being the length of the pendulum, vmax = smax smp, and amax = smax smp2.