On Halloween, you see an “alien” that has one antenna made of a glittery foam
ball connected to a spring. The spring oscillates with a period of 0.079 s and has
a spring constant of 63 N/m. Find the mass of the ball.
To find the mass of the ball, we can use the formula for the period of oscillation of a mass-spring system:
T = 2π√(m/k)
Where:
T = period of oscillation = 0.079 s
m = mass of the ball
k = spring constant = 63 N/m
Now we can solve for the mass of the ball:
0.079 s = 2π√(m/63)
0.079 s = √(m/63)
Squaring both sides, we get:
0.006241 s^2 = m/63
m = 0.006241 s^2 * 63
m = 0.3936 kg
Therefore, the mass of the glittery foam ball is 0.3936 kg.