Is a Spring Constant of 0.005 N/m Plausible for a Spider's Web?

[metalmagik]

I received a spring constant on the problem below to be .005 N/m.

I was wondering if this was even possible? When I got the frequency in the next part of the question, the frequency made sense, but i never thought a spring constant could come out to be so small.



A small fly of mass 0.13 g is caught in a spider's web. The web vibrates predominately with a frequency of 1.0 Hz.

(a) What is the value of the effective spring constant k for the web?

(b) At what frequency would you expect the web to vibrate if an insect of mass 0.54 g were trapped?




So is .005 N/m an acceptable spring constant? Thanks to anyone who responds.

 

[OlderDan]

I received a spring constant on the problem below to be .005 N/m.

I was wondering if this was even possible? When I got the frequency in the next part of the question, the frequency made sense, but i never thought a spring constant could come out to be so small.



A small fly of mass 0.13 g is caught in a spider's web. The web vibrates predominately with a frequency of 1.0 Hz.

(a) What is the value of the effective spring constant k for the web?

(b) At what frequency would you expect the web to vibrate if an insect of mass 0.54 g were trapped?




So is .005 N/m an acceptable spring constant? Thanks to anyone who responds.

Any spring constant is possible. It appears you have done the calculation correctly.

 

[metalmagik]

ah it's not right! here's my work:

omega = 2pi f

omega = 6.28 rad/sec

omega = rad(k/m)

6.28 = rad(k/.00013)

k=.005 N/m

i apologize for not using latex, but I do not know how to input omega and whatnot into it. Please help me with this problem!

 

[OlderDan]

ah it's not right! here's my work:

omega = 2pi f

omega = 6.28 rad/sec

omega = rad(k/m)

6.28 = rad(k/.00013)

k=.005 N/m

i apologize for not using latex, but I do not know how to input omega and whatnot into it. Please help me with this problem!

Why do you think it is not right? You could go out another decimal place to get more precision, and should since you were given 2 significant figures in the data. Other than that it looks OK.

 

[metalmagik]

No but, I entered it in Webassign and it told me it was not correct. The answers in web assign should be to 3 sig figs. Do you know what I am doing wrong?

 

[metalmagik]

can anyone help me with this problem pleasee? It's the last one I have on my webassign, I need a 100! thank you

 

[OlderDan]

No but, I entered it in Webassign and it told me it was not correct. The answers in web assign should be to 3 sig figs. Do you know what I am doing wrong?

.005N is only 1 significant figure. If they are expecting three, you need to give them 3.