Astroid motion of a harmonic oscillator in a rotating frame Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-31
For an isotropic harmonic oscillator with inertial frequency , viewed in a frame rotating at , initial rotating coordinates and zero relative velocity produce the displayed astroid trajectory. The complex coordinate satisfies , with solution . The relative speed is , attaining its first maximum at for nonzero .
The equation of motion in a rotating frame with constant angular velocity is
With and , this becomes
The given initial data make . For the complex coordinate , the planar equations combine into
Its characteristic roots are and . Applying , gives . The triple-angle identities reduce this astroid motion of a harmonic oscillator in a rotating frame to
It traces an astroid. Differentiating gives the relative speed
For , its maxima occur at , with
This is speed measured in the specified rotating frame. The same physical motion has inertial complex coordinate , an ellipse; its initial velocity is the frame-rotation contribution even though the initial relative velocity is zero.
Figure 1.
The oscillator's astroid in rotating coordinates, ellipse in inertial coordinates, and maxima of relative speed
. Details.