Acceleration When Pulled By Elastic Cord

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mill4864
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1. How does a cart being pulled by an elastic cord effect the acceleration of that cart?



2. That's the problem. I can't find any equations that deal with motion of an object pulled by an elastic cord. I was thinking there may be something to do with elastic potential energy [tex]\mbox{PE_e_l_a_s_t_i_c}[/tex] = [tex]\frac{1}{2} kx^2[/tex] but I don't know of any equations that relate potential energy to acceleration.




3. This is more of a conceptual question, so I'm not sure how I'd write my attempt at a solution, other than saying I think there may be some relation between elastic potential energy and the motion of an object being pulled by an elastic cord.
 
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Hi mill4864! Welcome to PF! :wink:

Let the cart be at position x, and the other end of the cord be at position y …

then use work done and conservation of energy :smile: