Question

The desperate contestants on a TV survival show are very hungry. The only food they can see is some fruit hanging on a branch high in a tree. Fortunately, they have a spring they can use to launch a rock.The fruit is 14 m from the top of the uncompressed spring, the spring constant is 3513 N/m, and they can compress the spring to a maximum of 23 cm. The contestants go searching for a rock suitable for the job. What is the maximum mass of a rock which is able to reach the fruit? (Use g = 9.8 m/s², consider the conversion between elastic and gravitational potential energy, and give your answer to the nearest 100 g)

Answer 1