Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2015/ii/paper-4/7d/b/solution

For a normal mode write . The generalized eigenvalue problem is
The three independent eigenvectors and corresponding squared frequencies are
The last two have zero mass-weighted displacement and are orthogonal in the mass inner product. The lowest frequency is zero: it represents a rigid translation with both springs unchanged. Its general motion includes uniform centre-of-mass velocity, not just a constant displacement. Superpositions of the two oscillatory normal modes and this translation give the general solution.

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