A spring with a constant of #1 (kg)/s^2# is lying on the ground with one end attached to a wall. An object with a mass of #2/5 kg# and speed of #1/4 m/s# collides with and compresses the spring until it stops moving. How much will the spring compress?
1 Answer
Apr 30, 2016
Explanation:
According to the law of conservation of energy, the total energy before and after a reaction must be equal.
Kinetic energy before this reaction is
Therefore, according to conservation,
Now we can put in what we know of the values and rearrange to find