The document describes a damped mass-spring system and provides the equation of motion for analyzing the free vibration of the system. It then gives the general solution to the differential equation that describes the response x(t) in terms of the system's natural frequency, damping ratio, initial displacement, and initial velocity. The student is asked to:
1. Create a Matlab function to calculate the response x(t) for given parameter values.
2. Run sample code that plots the response for different damping ratios.
3. Calculate and submit the response at two specific cases.