- #1
jskellington
- 2
- 0
Hi! So this is a more general question about a question that I have already solved but I'm still confused and it seems like I'm missing the concept here.
I'll try to recall the question as best I can from memory. A person is standing at a certain height h and shoots an object with some mass m at some angle z with a slingshot that acts as a spring with a k of k. The question asked for the velocity after the slingshot was released.
Kf + Ugf = Ki + Ugi
1/2mvf^2 + mgy = 1/2mvi^2 + mgh
Ws = 1/2 kxi^2 + 1/2 kxf^2
So basically what I did was plug in the values to find the work of the spring on the ball which I found to be 1/2kd^2. My main question is whether or not it is correct to substitute this value into the first equation above for Ki, the initial kinetic energy. This provided the correct answer and I found velocity by solving for Vf. I'm not sure if this makes any sense because I'm pretty confused myself. Thanks for any assistance.
Homework Statement
I'll try to recall the question as best I can from memory. A person is standing at a certain height h and shoots an object with some mass m at some angle z with a slingshot that acts as a spring with a k of k. The question asked for the velocity after the slingshot was released.
Homework Equations
Kf + Ugf = Ki + Ugi
1/2mvf^2 + mgy = 1/2mvi^2 + mgh
Ws = 1/2 kxi^2 + 1/2 kxf^2
The Attempt at a Solution
So basically what I did was plug in the values to find the work of the spring on the ball which I found to be 1/2kd^2. My main question is whether or not it is correct to substitute this value into the first equation above for Ki, the initial kinetic energy. This provided the correct answer and I found velocity by solving for Vf. I'm not sure if this makes any sense because I'm pretty confused myself. Thanks for any assistance.