Quality factor and viscous damping regimes
ID: quality-factor-and-viscous-damping-regimes
For a linear oscillator with viscous drag, this parameter puts the underdamped/critical boundary at . The energy-per-cycle interpretation and narrow displacement linewidth are most useful at high quality factor; critical and overdamped free motion do not complete oscillation cycles. Amplitude and averaged-energy ringdown times differ by a factor of two. The damping classification is not the same as the condition for a nonzero-frequency displacement maximum.
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