Damped Harmonic Oscillators

A straightforward method to analyze a damped harmonic oscillator.

When a velocity-proportional friction force is present, the system becomes damped. This summary explains the change of variables used to derive the differential equation of the damped oscillator, how to find the solution form depending on the discriminant, the three damping regimes (overdamped, critically damped, underdamped), and how to compute the constants.