Car springs have dampers attached to them. Were it not for these dampers the car would bounce up and down like a yo-yo for a long time after it hit a
bump in the road. The dampers do nothing to reduce the effectiveness of
the springs in absorbing the impact of the bump but they act to prevent the
springs continuing to oscillate. Without these dampers or shock absorbers
the springs would oscillate until all the energy of the bump had been dissipated as heat through the friction in the spring itself. The diagram shows a damped oscillation of a spring compared to an undamped one. In practice the dampers are friction or viscosity devices.
There are times when oscillations can be inconvenient. Many people have large swings of mood from being elated to being depressed. Some of those who read books on psychiatry even consider themselves to be manic-depressives. In fact many of these mood swings are comparatively normal for people living in the stress of modern society. They can, however, be an indication of depression. It
seems that the increasing stress of life produces chemical changes in the brain that lead to those mood swings. We do not know exactly what is happening but it may be that the system is forced into a hunting state (see
under 'Hunting'). As regards treatment it might seem logical to try to retain the upswings and get rid of the downswings. In practice it is easier to try to damp down the swings altogether and to try to restore the person to a 'normal' mood (if there is such a thing). If, however, the damping down is overdone then all mood fluctuations may be lost: but treatment is rarely that effective.The price of many commodities such as cocoa, wool, becf, grain and copper fluctuates wildly. This may seem hard to understand since the world's consumption of these items does not fluctuate to the same degree. It is true that poor harvests can cause shortages but many people suspect that the wild fluctuations are caused by the structure of the market. People buy commodity futures ahead and hope that at the time of delivery the price will have risen so that they make a profit. Conversely they promise to sell at a certain price and hope that when called upon to do so the buying price will have fallen. There is a growing feeling that these artificial fluctuations need damping down.
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