A spring with a constant of 5 (kg)/s^25kgs2 is lying on the ground with one end attached to a wall. An object with a mass of 6 kg6kg and speed of 8 m/s8ms collides with and compresses the spring until it stops moving. How much will the spring compress?

1 Answer
Dec 13, 2017

The compression is =8.76m=8.76m

Explanation:

Mass of the object is m=6kgm=6kg

Speed of the object is v=8ms^-1v=8ms1

The kinetic energy of the object is

KE=1/2mv^2=1/2*6*8^2=192JKE=12mv2=12682=192J

This energy will be stored in the spring

E=1/2kx^2E=12kx2

The spring constant is k=5kgs^-2k=5kgs2

Let the compression of the spring be =xm=xm

Therefore,

192=1/2*5*x^2192=125x2

x^2=(2*192)/5=76.8m^2x2=21925=76.8m2

The compression is

x=sqrt76.8=8.76mx=76.8=8.76m