Definition:Normal Mode

This page is about normal mode. For other uses, see normal.

Definition

Consider an oscillating system $S$ disturbed from equilibrium.

The motion of $S$ may be regarded as a combination of one or more independent normal modes of oscillation.

The contribution of each normal mode is determined by the initial disturbance.

This disturbance can be chosen so as to make $S$ oscillate exclusively in an arbitrary one of those normal modes.

In such a normal mode, all the elements of $S$ perform simple harmonic motion.

The period of each normal mode depends upon the structure of $S$ and not on the initial disturbance.

Also see

• Results about normal modes can be found here.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): normal modes
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): normal modes