Question

I. Leepov, mass 55 Kg, jumps off of a platform onto a spring board at gymnastics practice. He falls 3.2 m before he hits the surface of the spring board. He then continues downward, compressing the spring a distance of 0.40 m before he is launched back up by the spring. A. What is the spring constant of the spring? (Hint: use energy for part A.) B. What is the net force on Mr. Leepov when the spring is maximally compressed?

Answer 1

The potential energy of Leepov before he jumps (we will take the compressed distance as the gravitational reference)

The energy stored in the spring

Conservation of energy gives us

So, the value of spring constant is 24.255 kN/m.

The force on Leepov when the spring is maximally compressed is given by

So, the force on Leepov is 9702 N.