Question

Our system is a block attached to a horizontal spring on a frictionless table. The spring has a spring constant of 4.0 N/m and a rest length of 1.0 m, and the block has a mass of 0.25 kg.

Compute the PE when the spring is compressed by 0.50 m.

Answer 1

E - 1/2 K x^2 potential energy of compressed spring

E = 1/2 * 4 N / m * (.5 m)^2 = 2 * .5^2 N-m = .5 N-m