Spring Compression on an incline

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luvey
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Homework Statement


A 11kg box slides 4.0m down the frictionless ramp which has an incline of 30o to the horizontal, then collides with a spring whose spring constant is 190 N/m.

a.What is the maximum compression of the spring?
b.At what compression of the spring does the box have its maximum speed?


Homework Equations


Spring: PE=1/2*k([tex]\Delta[/tex]s)2
Gravity: PE=mgsin([tex]\theta[/tex])d
PEspring initial+PEgravity initial=PEspring final+PEgravity final


The Attempt at a Solution


I tried plugging in the numbers which gave me:
0+11*9.81*sin(30)*4=1/2*190([tex]\Delta[/tex]s)2+11*9.81*sin(30)*(4+[tex]\Delta[/tex]s)
Which gave me the max compression of 0.56795 m

I haven't made it to part b yet because I can't seem to obtain the max compression.
 
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luvey said:

The Attempt at a Solution


I tried plugging in the numbers which gave me:
0+11*9.81*sin(30)*4=1/2*190([tex]\Delta[/tex]s)2+11*9.81*sin(30)*(4+[tex]\Delta[/tex]s)
Which gave me the max compression of 0.56795 m

I haven't made it to part b yet because I can't seem to obtain the max compression.

You do not need the extra 11*9.81*sin(30) on the right side.

The left side is the initial energy which when it reaches the spring is being entirely stored as elastic potential energy.