A spring with a spring constant of 1200 N/m has a 55-g ball at its end. The energy of the system is 5.5J. What is the amplitude of vibration?
You reach the max amplitude when all the energy is in the spring and the kinetic energy of the ball is zero.
Answer:
0.0957 m
Explanation:
The total energy of a spring system is given by:
\(E=\frac{1}{2}kA^2\)
where
k is the spring constant
A is the amplitude of the vibration
In this problem, we know:
k = 1200 N/m is the spring constant
E = 5.5 J is the total energy
Therefore, we can re-arrange the equation to find the amplitude of the vibration:
\(A=\sqrt{\frac{2E}{k}}=\sqrt{\frac{2(5.5 J)}{1200 N/m}}=0.0957 m\)