Three Curves, One Clock

You'll learnhow the position, velocity, and acceleration graphs of SHM line up in time.

A block on a spring writes three diaries at once: where it is, how fast it’s moving, how hard it’s being pulled. Stack them on a shared time axis and the whole choreography — who peaks, who sleeps, who’s upside down — reads at a glance.

8 STEPS · 6 QUICK CHECKS · v5

TRACE LAB

Before you start

What you're looking at

A block on a spring pulled to +0.2 m, with position, velocity, and acceleration graphs on a shared clock.

The question

How do an oscillator's three graphs relate — who peaks, who dies, who's upside down?

Watch for

A time cursor sweeping the stacked graphs; predict which curve peaks as another crosses zero.

What the symbols mean

Three traces — position, velocity, acceleration — plotted against one shared time axis.

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