When analyzing the deflection and controlling torque there are three main categories, under damped, over damped, and critically damped. If a system is under damped it will not reach its final rate of oscillation in a timely manner, and will oscillate slowly for a long period of time. If it is over damped, the system will oscillate at a rate that is too slow to give an accurate reading. Finally, if it is critically damped, it has an equal amount of deflection and controlling torque, thus allowing the pointer to quickly find the correct value, without the system oscillating past that value. Critically damped means the machine has the right amount of damping torque and is ready to be used for experiments.