Calculating Amplitude of Oscillation for Colliding Objects on a Spring

[ussrasu]

For lunch you and your friends decide to stop at the nearest deli and have a sandwich made fresh for you with 0.300 kg of Italian ham. The slices of ham are weighed on a plate of mass 0.400 kg placed atop a vertical spring of negligible mass and force constant of 200 N/m. The slices of ham are dropped on the plate all at the same time from a height of 0.250 m. They make a totally inelastic collision with the plate and set the scale into vertical simple harmonic motion (SHM). You may assume that the collision time is extremely small.

What is the amplitude of oscillation (A) of the scale after the slices of ham land on the plate? Express your answer numerically in meters and take free-fall acceleration to be g = 9.80 m/s^2 .

Any help on how to solve this question would be appreciated - I am not sure how to solve it using y(t) = Acos(omega*t + phi). How do you determine the initial position y_0 and initial velocity v_0 from this equation?

 

[whozum]

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=76471

Exact same problem.

 

[ussrasu]

I don't understand how to work out the amplitude - i have tried using mgh = 1/2kA^2, but I am still getting the wrong answer? Where am i doing something wrong? I get A = sqrt((2*m*g*h)/k) where m = 0.7, g = 9.8, h = 0.25 and k = 200?

 

[Doc Al]

Please look at the other thread and continue the discussion there.