Question

A spring is kept compressed by a toy car of mass 100 g. On releasing the spring the car moves out with a speed of 0.5 ms⁻¹. Calculate the potential energy of the compressed spring.

Answer 1

The spring's potential energy changes into the car's kinetic energy.

Convert the mass: 100 g = 0.1 kg

\[ \text{Kinetic energy} = \frac{1}{2}\, mv^{2} \]

\[= \frac{1}{2} \times 0.1 \times (0.5)^{2} \]

= 0.0125 J

Therefore, the potential energy stored in the spring is 0.0125 J.