Question

A spring with a spring constant of 1200 N/m has a 55-g ball at its end. The energy of the system is 5.5J. What is the amplitude of vibration?

Answer 1

Answer:

0.0957 m

Explanation:

The total energy of a spring system is given by:

$E=\frac{1}{2}kA^2$

where

k is the spring constant

A is the amplitude of the vibration

In this problem, we know:

k = 1200 N/m is the spring constant

E = 5.5 J is the total energy

Therefore, we can re-arrange the equation to find the amplitude of the vibration:

$A=\sqrt{\frac{2E}{k}}=\sqrt{\frac{2(5.5 J)}{1200 N/m}}=0.0957 m$

Answer 2

You reach the max amplitude when all the energy is in the spring and the kinetic energy of the ball is zero.