Question

"You have been asked to design a "ballistic spring system" to measure the speed of bullets. A spring whose spring constant is k is suspended from the ceiling. A block of mass M hangs from the spring. A bullet of mass m is fired vertically upward into the bottom of the block. The spring's maximum compression d is measured."

"Find an expression for the bullet's speed vB. Express your answer in terms of the variables m, M, k, d, and constant g."
I've been able to find a few solutions that produce the right result, but none that use the variable g, which MasteringPhysics is requiring. Can anyone help me find a correct equation for the problem that contains the g constant in it?

Answer 1

In your question which ask to design a ballistic spring system to measure the speed of bullet. The ask is to find the expression for the bullets speed by using the term given in your question so base on the data you have given and with my calculation the answer is (M+m)*g*d + 1/2*k*(d1-d)^2