Mechano, the evil robot cat, has captured the mouse, Jerry (mJ = 0.400 kg), and

Question

Mechano, the evil robot cat, has captured the mouse, Jerry (mJ = 0.400 kg), and is about to launch him out of a window using his robotic sling shot.

Part A: You can see that the sling shot has two elastic bands that hold the pouch, which is wrapped around Jerry. Treat each of the bands like a Hooke's Law spring, with a spring constant of k = 1800 N/m. The rest length of each "spring" is L0 = 0.0550 m. At the time of the launch, the "springs" have a length of Lf = 0.100 m. How much elastic potential energy (UE) is stored in each "spring?"

Part B: What is Jerry's speed (vJ) when he leaves the sling shot?

Explanation / Answer

at the time of launch the elongation in the spring is x = (0.1/2)-(0.0550) = 0.005 m

elastic potential energy is U = 0.5*k*x^2 = 0.5*1800*0.005^2 = 0.0225 J

B) 0.5*k*x^2 = 0.5*m*v^2

0.0225 = 0.5*0.4*v^2

v = 0.3354 m/s

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