Question

Robert Hooke attaches springs to the bottoms of his shoes and slides down a curved, frictionless slide, as show in the figure below. When he reaches the ground at the bottom, the springs compress against a low wall, and he then bounces back up the slide. Assume the spring is perfectly elastic and obeys Hooke's Law. Four points on the trajectory are labeled: At point 1, Hooke stars from rest at the top of the slide. At point 2, he is sliding down. At point 3, he has reached the bottom, the springs are fully compressed, and he is momentarily at rest. Point 4 is where he is sliding back up. At which point or points is the gravitational potential energy smallest? At which point or points is the gravitational potential energy largest? At which point or points is the kinetic energy smallest? At which point or points is the kinetic energy largest? Is the spring potential energy at point 3 larger, smaller, or equal to the gravitational potential energy at point 2? Is the spring potential energy at point 3 larger, smaller, or equal to the kinetic energy at point 2?
3

Answer 1

a) The gravitational potential energy is given by Atpoint3 h-0 Sothe gravitati onal potential energy-0 At3 gravitati onal potenti al energy is smallest Gravitational potentialenergy is largest at starting point.ie at point1 b)

c) The kineticenergy is given by KE-0.5mv Velocity iszero at point 1 Soatpointlkinetic energyissmallest d) Here Velocity is maximum at point 3 So at point 3 kinetic energy islargest