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Examples of repeating, or harmonic, motion crop up whenever something in stable equilibrium is disturbed. A restoring force comes into play that opposes the move away from equilibrium and acts to return the object to its position of stable equilibrium. Invariably the system overshoots its resting place and then oscillates about its equilibrium position.
Simple harmonic motion (SHM) arises when the restoring force, F, is proportional to the displacement, x, from equilibrium. The equilibrium position is conveniently taken as the origin from which to measure the motion. In one dimension (a vibration or oscillation in a straight line):
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