How Much Work Is Needed to Compress a Spring?

[Chica1975]

Homework Statement

A spring, with a spring constant of 87 N/m, was compressed a distance of 8.6cm (0.086m). How much work was done in order to compress the spring?

Homework Equations

WC=1/2kd^2

The Attempt at a Solution

I tried to plug in the numbers as follows in the above equation - but I can't get the answer out. I have been doing this for ages am like a broken record - pse snap me out of this programming!

WC= 2*87*.086^2 = 1.286904J
Apparently, the correct answer is .32J

Help!

 

[granpa]

you are off by a factor of 4
you multiplied by 2
maybe you were supposed to multiply by 1/2

 

[Chica1975]

thanks - I tried to recalculate it this is not the case.

 

[Redbelly98]

Homework Equations

WC=1/2kd^2

According to this equation, you are supposed to multiply kd² by 1/2, not by 2.

 

[rwisz]

I would like to first commend you for your persistence and determination in trying to solve this problem. It is important to keep trying and not give up, even when faced with challenges.

Now, let's take a look at the problem and your attempt at a solution. The equation you used, WC=1/2kd^2, is the correct equation for calculating the work done in compressing a spring. However, there is a mistake in your calculation.

To find the work done, we need to use the values of the spring constant (k) and the distance compressed (d) in meters. In your attempt, you used 87 N/m for the spring constant, which is correct. However, for the distance compressed, you used 0.086m instead of 0.086m. This is a simple error, but it significantly affects the result.

So, let's try the calculation again using the correct values:

WC= 1/2 * 87 * (0.086)^2 = 0.3138 J

This is close to the correct answer of 0.32 J. The slight difference could be due to rounding off of numbers.

In conclusion, the work done to compress the spring is 0.32 J. It is important to pay attention to units and use the correct values in calculations to get accurate results. Keep up the good work!