A couple suggestions/reminders:
- Choose a datum position (your choice of where you place this). If the particle is ABOVE this datum, then the gravitational potential at that position is POSITIVE. If the particle is BELOW this datum, then the gravitational potential at that position is NEGATIVE.
- The potential energy due to a spring at one position is ALWAYS non-negative (either zero or positive). You should never put a negative sign in front of the potential energy due to a spring.
- Be sure to convert inches to feet. Otherwise your units will not be consistent when you use g = 32.17 ft/sec^2.
3 comments:
Keep in mind that the collar isn't falling just the 18 inches. It also falls 2 inches into the spring. This may be why your answer is a little off, if you're not getting it correct.
I tried setting the total energy of the block at contact with the spring equal to the total energy at full compression and i can't get it to work. any suggestions?
The description of your approach sounds fine. And there do not seem to be many ways where that could go wrong.
I would be happy to look over a scan of your work and let you know if I see something wrong.
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