Question

An object attached to a spring is being pulled across a flat frictionless surface. The spring constant is 48 N/m, the object is accelerating at 1.1 m/s2, and the mass of the object is 38 kg. What distance is the springstretched?

Answer 1

The magnitude of the restoring force acting on the object is,

`F=kx`

where k is the spring constant, and x is the distance of the spring stretched.

The magnitude of the force acting on the object in terms of the acceleration is,

`F=ma`

where m is the mass of the object and a is the acceleration.

From both the values of the force,

`kx=ma`

Substitutitng the known values,

`\begin{gathered} 48* x=38*1.1 \\ x=0.871\text{ m} \end{gathered}`

Thus, the value of the stretched distance of the string is 0.871 m.