Question

How does the mass affect simple harmonic motion?

Answer 1

Simple Harmonic Motion is a type of periodic motion in which the restoring force on the moving object will be directly proportional to the displacement magnitude and will act towards the equilibrium position of the object.

Complete answer:
The factors that affect the simple harmonic motion are the mass and the force constant which are represented as m and k. However in some cases, when the restoring force constant is directly proportional to the mass, the natural frequency will become independent of the mass.
Mass also will affect the period of oscillation. For example, a stiffer spring with the constant mass decreases the period of the oscillation and if the mass is increased then the period of oscillation also increases.
If the mass is doubled then the spring constant, the frequency of the oscillator, and, the amplitude of the motion also gets doubled.
If the mass of a vibrating body increases, the frequency decreases. However, as the tension increases then the frequency also increases.

Additional Information:
In some systems, the mass and the frequency are unrelated and sometimes both are related depending on the phenomenon.

Note: 1. The applications of simple harmonic motion are guitar, violin, bungee jumping, clock, diving boards, etc and it is always oscillatory. All periodic motions are not oscillatory but every oscillatory motion is periodic.
2. The two main characteristics of simple harmonic motion are:
i) The direction of the acceleration will always be towards the mean position.
ii) The acceleration will be directly proportional to the displacement.