Title: free oscillation
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - free oscillation
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.12770
Status: current

Definition
Oscillatory deformation of a material specimen with the motion generated without the continuous application of an external force.

Note
For any real sample of material, the resulting oscillatory deformation is one of decaying amplitudes.

Related Term
- forced sinusoidal oscillation: https://goldbook.iupac.org//terms/view/12767

Source
- PAC, 2013, 85, 1017. 'Glossary of terms relating to thermal and thermomechanical properties of polymers (IUPAC Recommendations 2013)' on page 1028 (https://doi.org/10.1351/PAC-REC-12-03-02)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12770/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12770/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12770/xml

Citation: Citation: 'free oscillation' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.12770
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
Collection: If you are interested in licensing the Gold Book for commercial use, please contact the IUPAC Executive Director at executivedirector@iupac.org .
Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-05-08T07:05:19+00:00