In the case of a mass hanging on a spring, Newton's Laws, combined with Hooke's law for the behavior of a spring, states that:

- ky = ma

where k is the spring constant, m is the mass, y is the position of the mass, and a is its acceleration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_oscillator

-- DavidKiers - 20 Feb 2004

You're the first person to uncover the secret meaning behind the name!

-- CarlaScaletti - 23 Feb 2004

Hi David

I notice the link goes on to talk about RCL circuits. In Petes Modules there are some RCL filters for kyma which you might want to have a play with. These are very cheap in terms of DSP and don't use diff equations. Instead they use step by step maths which means that they become inacurate when you get near to the sample frequency, but they do oscilate if you set the resistance to a high value. It can also be used to mimic dampend oscilation quite well at very low frecuencies.

-- PeteJohnston - 23 Feb 2004