Question

2. The Navy wants to design a new airplane launcher for their aircraft carriers and you are on the design team. The launcher is effectively a large spring that pushes the plane for the first 5 m of a 20 m long runway. During that same time, the plane’s jet engines supply a constant thrust of 5.4 x 104 N for the entire length of the runway. The 2000 kg planes need to have a velocity of 45 m/s by the end of the runway. What spring constant is needed to make this work? I have this part answered so far? what do I do next to solve for spring constant?

∆KE=12mvf2-12mv02=12(2000)(45)2-12(2000)(0)2=2025000 J

Work=F∆xcosθ=Fthrustxrcos0°=5.4×104N20 m1=1080000 J

Answer 1