So i'm reading the Berkley review physics book and it says that potential energy for simple harmonic motion is the elastic potential energy because gravity does not play a role in horizontal movement. If the spring is vertical however, say it was hanging, would gravity play any role here, or would potential energy still be the elastic potential?
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Simple Harmonic Motion
- Thread starter crazyasian
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I think you would add the 2. KEi+PEi +PEi elastic = KE final + PE final
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it we were trying to solve for the elastic potential when a spring was vertical, we could use the mass of the attached object to find the distance (x) the spring was displaced using F = -kx. The force would just be the mass of the object times gravity. Then we could just plug into the formula PE = 1/2kx^2 and find our answer. The elastic potential energy of the spring will depend on the displacement and the spring constant only. When the spring's vertical, gravity is just supplying a force to displace the spring a distance (x) from equilibrium.
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This is true but Does not Answer his question. What if an object was dropped on the vertical spring from a height h above the spring? Then what? Indeed the op is correct. You would equate mgh (height from start above spring) = -mgx+1/2kx^2 which represents the final position of the object on the spring when it pushes down on the spring
