How is SHM involved in car suspensions?
The process of car suspension vibration is more complex than SHM. All types of suspension systems are, normally, heavily damped.
A car is a mass on a spring, the simplest kind of simple harmonic motion. Apply a vertical force at the center of mass and the springs compress an amount equal to F/k. Release the force suddenly and the car oscillates at its harmonic frequency: 1/2pi(k/m0^.5 Of course there are actually 4 springs on a car, so there are rotational modes of oscillation that can be involved. Also, when in operation, the excitation of the system is at the wheels, and there are practically infinite ways that dynamic motion can be introduced, and there are also dampers involved, so calculating the motion at any time is complicated. But it is basically a SHM system.
