--- title: "Energy in Simple Harmonic Motion, Damping and Resonance" description: "An oscillator trades its whole energy between a kinetic store and a potential one twice per cycle, and the total stays fixed only while nothing dissipates. Damping drains it, and driving at the natura" canonical: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/energy-in-simple-harmonic-motion-damping-and-resonance-mt_3sh7E7k7j2 source: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/energy-in-simple-harmonic-motion-damping-and-resonance-mt_3sh7E7k7j2.md retrieved: 2026-09-12 --- > **Agent view.** This is the Markdown twin of the page, for tools and assistants. > When to use this site, and the call that answers each job: https://lightmysky.com/agent-instructions.md > API description (OpenAPI 3.1): https://lightmysky.com/openapi.json · Authentication: https://lightmysky.com/auth.md > Pricing: https://lightmysky.com/pricing.md · Catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms.txt · Full catalog: https://lightmysky.com/llms-full.txt > Every machine-readable file on this domain: https://lightmysky.com/.well-known/ai-catalog.json > Ask for Markdown with `Accept: text/markdown`, a `.md` address, or `?mode=agent`. # Energy in Simple Harmonic Motion, Damping and Resonance An oscillator trades its whole energy between a kinetic store and a potential one twice per cycle, and the total stays fixed only while nothing dissipates. Damping drains it, and driving at the natural frequency pumps the amplitude up until the losses catch the input. Subject: Science · Area: Forces & Motion · Ages 17 to 18 Page: https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/energy-in-simple-harmonic-motion-damping-and-resonance-mt_3sh7E7k7j2 ## Ready when they can - Sketches kinetic, potential and total energy against displacement for one oscillation and explains the shape of each - Distinguishes light, critical and heavy damping by what happens to a displaced system, and gives a use for each - Explains why amplitude peaks near the natural frequency and what heavier damping does to the height and width of that peak ## Lesson: Where the swing keeps its energy In an ideal oscillator, energy flows back and forth while the total stays fixed. At the extremes the mass pauses, so all energy sits in the spring, while at the centre the spring is relaxed and all energy is motion. Halfway between, the two stores share the total equally. Plotted against displacement, kinetic energy is an upside down parabola peaking at the centre, potential energy is an upright parabola peaking at the edges, and total energy is a flat line. Real oscillators lose a little energy each cycle, and this damping picks one of three stories. Light damping swings many times with slowly shrinking amplitude, like a tuning fork. Critical damping returns to rest in the shortest time without overshooting, which car suspensions aim for. Heavy damping creeps slowly back with no oscillation at all, like a door closer that must never slam. Pushing once per cycle feeds energy in, and the response peaks when you push at the natural frequency. That peak is resonance, familiar from pushing a swing. It sits near the natural frequency and grows taller and narrower when damping is light. Heavier damping lowers the peak and widens it, spreading a smaller response over more frequencies. Radio tuners use sharp resonance to select one station, while shock absorbers use strong damping to stop resonance ever building up. **Tip.** Read an observed return to rest to name the regime: overshoot and shrink means light, fastest clean settle means critical, slow creep means heavy. Then match the use to the regime. **Recap.** Energy trades stores each cycle, damping picks the return story, and resonance peaks at the natural rhythm. ## Practice 8 questions on this page, each with its working shown. ## Needs first - [Simple Harmonic Motion: the Defining Relation and Its Graphs](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/simple-harmonic-motion-the-defining-relation-and-its-graphs-mt_NTDayHkdfh) - [Kinetic and Gravitational Potential Stores](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/kinetic-and-gravitational-potential-stores-mt_uD3jklaZCw) ## Opens up - [Simple Harmonic Motion as a Second-Order Equation](https://lightmysky.com/learn/science/simple-harmonic-motion-as-a-second-order-equation-mt_HHmR-uCvwO)