A 1.0 kg puck sliding at 15 m/s along some horizontal frictionless ice strikes and compresses a horizontal spring attached to one end of the ice rink. If the spring has a constant of 35 N/m, what is the maximum compression of the spring?

Question

A 1.0 kg puck sliding at 15 m/s along some horizontal frictionless ice strikes  and compresses a horizontal spring attached to one end of the ice rink. If the spring has a constant of  35 N/m, what is the maximum compression of the spring?

anonymous · Answer

This is a problem that uses Hooke's law which is $$f=kx$$ which means the force required to move a spring some distance x is equal to the spring constant times the displacement. Now, since they don't give you a force but they give you a weight and a velocity it is clear that you need to find a way at force through that. In this case I would assume that the pucks deacelleration is an instantaneous $$15m/s^2$$ so you get $$1kg*15m/s^2=35N/m*x$$
rearrange to find x
$$15N/35N/m=x =3/7 m$$
Hope this helps!