Abstract
The harmonic oscillator damped by frictional forces is revisited with a more robust and comprehensive physical and mathematical descriptions. Several system properties are presented and discussed, such as the solution to the general case of initial conditions, displacement envelopes, exact number of oscillations, instantaneous dissipation and average energy, quality factor, phase diagram and others. This text serves as a theoretical foundation for computer simulations and didactic experiments that explore oscillating systems damped by frictional forces.
Keywords:
harmonic oscillator; damped oscillators; kinetic friction
