Homework Help: College Physics

Posted by Jen on Friday, October 26, 2007 at 3:59pm.

An object is suspended from a spring and vibrates with simple harmonic motion. At an instant when the displacement of the object is equal to one-half the amplitude, what fraction of the total energy of the system is kinetic and what fraction is potential?

College Physics - drwls, Friday, October 26, 2007 at 4:04pm
Potential energy of a vibrating spring is proportional to the square of the displacement (P.E = kx^2/2, where k is the spriong constant). At maximum displacement, ALL of the energy is potential energy, because motion temporaily stops and KE is zero. At 1/2 maximum displacement, the P.E. is 1/4 of that total energy. That means that 3/4 must be kinetic energyn there.

Answer this Question

Related Questions

physics - A 0.20 kg object, attached to a spring with spring constant k = 10 N/m...
physics help! - Objects of equal mass are oscillating up and down in simple ...
Physics - A 3.5 kg object is suspended from a spring of spring constant 725 N/m...
Physics - A 3.5 kg object is suspended from a spring of spring constant 725 N/m...
physics - A particle vibrates in Simple Harmonic Motion with amplitude. What ...
science - A 0.20 kg object, attached to a spring with spring constant k = 10 N/m...
PHYSICS - An object is attached to an ideal spring. It undergoes a simple ...
Physics - A 2kg object is attached to a spring and undergoes simple harmonic ...
Physics - An object with mass 3.7 is attached to a spring with spring stiffness ...
Physics - An object with mass 8.2 kg is attached to a spring with spring ...

For Further Reading

First Name:
School Subject:
Answer: