Question

A lightweight vertical spring of force constant k has its lower end mounted on a table. You compress the spring by a distance d, place a block of mass m on top of the compressed spring, and then release the block. The spring launches the block upward, and the block rises to a maximum height some distance above the now-relaxed spring. Find the speed of the block just as it loses contact with the spring.

Answer 1

Answer:

$v=d\sqrt{\frac{k}{m}}$

Explanation:

In order to solve this problem, we can do an analysis of the energies involved in the system. Basically the addition of the initial potential energy of the spring and the kinetic energy of the mass should be the same as the addition of the final potential energy of the spring and the kinetic energy of the block. So we get the following equation:

$U_{0}+K_{0}=U_{f}+K_{f}$

In this case, since the block is moving from rest, the initial kinetic energy is zero. When the block loses contact with the spring, the final potential energy of the spring will be zero, so the equation simplifies to:

$U_{0}=K_{f}$

The initial potential energy of the spring is given by the equation:

$U_{0}=\frac{1}{2}kd^{2}$

the Kinetic energy of the block is then given by the equation:

$K_{f}=\frac{1}{2}mv_{f}^{2}$

so we can now set them both equal to each other, so we get:

$=\frac{1}{2}kd^{2}=\frac{1}{2}mv_{f}^{2}$

This new equation can be simplified if we multiplied both sides of the equation by a 2, so we get:

$kd^{2}=mv_{f}^{2}$

so now we can solve this for the final velocity, so we get:

$v=d\sqrt{\frac{k}{m}}$