system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do oscillations truly go to zero, and if not, do we now how small they can decrease to?

Consider a simple system of a 1 degree of freedom spring-mass/damper oscillator. When solving the differential equation that represents the equation of motion, we often get results that decay to a limit of 0 due to an exponential--i.e. overdamping, underdamping, and critical damping.

I was wondering, do these ever truly go to zero? I realize it's most likely similar to cutting something in half over and over again trying to get to zero mass, but at SOME point you hit subatomic particles and can't get anywhere. So do we know of a point at which oscillations seem to stay at a constant value very near zero?

More importantly, is my body still feeling that punch from the 3rd grade?
gpt
Even if it never goes away, at some point, the energy will be just as dispersed in the atoms as the rest of the regular jostles of kinetic, rotational, and vibrational energy that is heat.

It's like asking if your footprints are still in the grass of your grade school yard. Well, the grass wouldn't be in the exact configuration it's in now had you never walked on it, but... come on. You wouldn't  know the difference if you were shown the grass without your interference.