Energy conservation with conservative forces: An object is attached to a hanging unstretched ideal and massless spring and slowly lowered to its equilibrium position, a distance of 6.4 cm below the starting point. If instead of having been lowered slowly the object was dropped from rest, how far then would it then stretch the spring at maximum elongation?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When the object is dropped, the potential energy at the starting point is converted into both kinetic energy and elastic potential energy at maximum elongation. The maximum stretch is twice the equilibrium stretch, so 2 * 6.4 cm = 12.8 cm, which rounds to 13 cm.

Energy Conservation with Conservative Forces: an Object Is Attached to a Hanging