A spring is stretched 10 cm by a suspended 1-kg block. If two such springs side-by-side are used to suspend the 1-kg block, each spring will then stretch
A)5 cm.
B)10 cm.
C)20 cm.
D)30 cm.
E)none of the above

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When two identical springs are used side-by-side to suspend the 1-kg block, the weight will be evenly distributed across both springs. Therefore, each spring will only have to support half of the weight, or 0.5 kg. Since the amount of stretch in a spring is directly proportional to the weight it is supporting, each spring will only stretch half as much as it did when it was supporting the entire 1-kg block on its own. Therefore, each spring will stretch 5 cm (half of the original 10 cm stretch).

A Spring Is Stretched 10 Cm by a Suspended 1-Kg