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I'm stumped on this one, so any clarification is appreciated. The problem statement gives the following:

A mass weighing $10 N$ is placed on a vertical spring and causes the spring to compress 1 meter. What is the spring constant, $k$?

From a perspective of balancing forces, the upward force of the spring must balance the downward force of gravity (if the system is at equilibrium and no other forces are involved), which gives the expression:

$F_{net} = ma \implies F_{spring} + F_{gravity} = 0$

$-kx = mg$

$-k(-1 m) = 10 N \implies k = 10 N/m$

However, if the conservation of energy is used, where E_total is constant before and after compression of the spring, the change in gravitational potential energy should be compensated by the change in the potential energy stored in the spring.

$\Delta U_{gravity} = 10N(1 m) = 10 J$

$\Delta U_{spring} = 1/2k(1 m)^2 = (0.5 m^2)k$

Setting the two expressions equal gives:

$10 J = (0.5 m^2)k$

$k = 20 N/m $

What is causing the two values of $k$ to differ? I can't spot the error in either formulation, but they definitely give me different results.

John Rennie
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2 Answers2

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This means that something else must have taken 5 J of the total mechanical energy in your energy diagram. Your first equation to calculate the spring coefficient is correct:

$$mg = kx$$

But in this scenario, some external force has dampened the system, i.e. it has brought the mass to rest on the spring, which must be taken into account when considering the energy diagram.


This is the differential equation that describes motion on a spring when there are no external forces involved:

$$m \ddot{x} = mg - kx \quad \text{or} \quad \ddot{x} + \omega^2 x = g$$

where $\omega^2 = \frac{k}{m}$. What this means is that when you release the mass from its rest state, it will never stop oscillating. The solution to the above differential equation is:

$$x(t) = \frac{g}{\omega^2} ( 1 - \cos(\omega t)) \quad \text{and} \quad \dot{x}(t) = \frac{g}{\omega} \sin(\omega t)$$

where $x$ is displacement and $\dot{x}$ is velocity of the mass.

In your energy diagram from which you were calculating the spring coefficient $k$, you were calculating the mechanical energy for the displacement

$$x(t^\star) = \frac{mg}{k} = \frac{g}{\omega^2}$$

where $t^\star$ is the time at which displacement $x$ takes the value of $\frac{g}{\omega^2}$. Let's see what is the velocity at the time $t = t^\star$:

$$\text{from} \quad x(t^\star) = \frac{g}{\omega^2} = \frac{g}{\omega^2} (1 - \cos(\omega t^\star)) \quad \text{it follows} \quad \omega t^\star = \frac{\pi}{2} \quad \text{and} \quad \dot{x}(t^\star) = \frac{g}{\omega}$$

At that point there is also a kinetic energy you are forgetting:

$$K(t^\star) = \frac{1}{2} m v^2 = \frac{1}{2} m \frac{g^2}{\omega^2} = \frac{1}{2} \frac{(mg)^2}{k}$$

If you evaluate the above expression, you get the missing 5 J of the mechanical energy. In a scenario in which the mass is at rest on the spring, there must have been some external force which compensated kinetic energy so that the mass does not oscillate. The work from that force must also be taken into account in the energy diagram, and I showed here it equals exactly 5 J which was missing in your calculations.

The correct energy diagram of the spring-mass system without any external forces or dampening is as follows:

$$E = U_g + U_s + K = mgx + \frac{1}{2}kx^2 + \frac{1}{2}m\dot{x}^2$$

In the absence of external forces or dampening, the mechanical energy of the system always remains the same. In other words, the total mechanical energy $E$ is continuously distributed between gravitational and elastic potential energy, and kinetic energy. That is why the mass will oscillate forever. At some point the $U_p$ and $U_s$ will cancel out, but at that point all the mechanical energy $E$ is in $K$ which means the mass has the maximum velocity.


To conclude, your energy diagram for the total mechanical energy

$$mgx = \frac{1}{2} k x^2 \qquad \text{WRONG!}$$

is not correct because it does not include work from an external force that would bring the mass to rest on the spring. That is why you were getting the wrong value for $k$ when calculating it from the energy diagram. The correct calculation would be

$$\boxed{mgx + W_\text{ext} = \frac{1}{2} k x^2}$$

where $W_\text{ext} = -5 \text{ J}$.

Marko Gulin
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  • What do you think about denoting $mg/k$ as an amplitude of displacement, e.g., $A=mg/k$. I think this way your equations will look cleaner. Just a suggestion. For example you have $x=mg/k$ while $x$ itself is really $x(t)$. You also have $g/\omega^{2}$ as the amplitude of displacement which really simplifies to $mg/k$. Thus, defining an amplitude parameter will help I think. – Newbie Jan 13 '22 at 16:54
  • @Newbie I wanted to show what is the mechanical energy diagram at the exact location the OP was trying to calculate the spring coefficient $k$ from. – Marko Gulin Jan 13 '22 at 16:57
  • I completely agree about your use of the differential equation for the motion of a spring. However, in the case that the mass is resting with the spring compressed (at an equilibrium position), shouldn't d^2x/dt^2 equal zero? On the other hand, in the absence of damping forces, the spring should continue to oscillate forever, indictaing that some damping force was indeed applied for there to be a rest position with the spring compressed. Would this damping force account for the "extra" missing energy in the conservation of energy equation, and the force balance be more accurate/appropriate? – plasmakt Jan 13 '22 at 17:00
  • I understand your point but my argument was just from a clarity standpoint. For instance $x(\omega t=\pi/2)$ is much clearer. Also the sentence before last of your answer, the 2 sides of the equation don't have the same units. – Newbie Jan 13 '22 at 17:02
  • @plasmakt In order for mass to rest on the spring, there must be some external force that will completely take away the kinetic energy. I edited my answer to include these details. – Marko Gulin Jan 13 '22 at 17:07
  • @MarkoGulin I've already mentioned it in my answer – Tejas Dahake Jan 13 '22 at 17:12
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    @Newbie I've introduced the time component in the equations to be more clear for which point we are doing the calculations. Thanks for the suggestion! – Marko Gulin Jan 13 '22 at 17:22
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    @MarkoGulin Can you please somehow fit in the complete expression of energy for the entire system (without any external force other than gravity), i.e., $E=U_{g}+U_{s}+K=mgx+1/2kx^{2}+1/2mv^{2}(x)$? I think it's important to highlight the fact that according to the conditions provided in the OP the string-mass system will oscillate forever and only momentarily at $x=mg/k$ the forces cancel out. However, the mass oscillates between $x=0$ and $x=2mg/k$. – Newbie Jan 13 '22 at 17:26
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    @plasmakt I think you should accept and upvote this answer. The combination of the question and answer are instructive and may be used in the future. – Newbie Jan 13 '22 at 17:40
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    @Newbie Thanks for the suggestions that improved the answer! – Marko Gulin Jan 13 '22 at 17:41
  • Sorry, I wasn't aware that I needed to accept the answer. Thank you for letting me know. – plasmakt Jan 13 '22 at 18:44
  • @plasmakt You do not have to accept, but it is good practice to accept an answer that you find the most helpful. If you do not find any answer helpful, you do not have to accept any answer. – Marko Gulin Jan 13 '22 at 18:46
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    @MarkoGulin no, that's fair. I just wasn't familiar with the process on the forum. I found your answer to be very helpful. To set the scene: I was working through some early physics problems on "popular_website" as a refresher, and got the answer marked wrong when I calculated it based on the force balance. The provided solution calculated the result using the conservation of energy method, but I knew something felt wrong about it. You accurately identified the issue, and I appreciate that very much. Best regards. – plasmakt Jan 13 '22 at 18:51
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The change in gravitational potential energy will not be just equal to the energy that will get stored in the spring. That means if you just leave the mass above the spring (just touching to the head of spring) partial energy will get converted into the kinetic energy of the block as well.

And in the case if we bring the block very slowly that the velocity will be nearly equal to zero that means we are also applying the force just in the opposite direction to the displacement of the mass.by applying the equal force so that the small velocity should remain constant . means work done by that external agent will come out to be negative and hence some amount of potential energy will get converted into our workdone and rest of the energy will get converted into the potential energy of the spring. (That amount of velocity is very small so that the kinetic energy can almost be treated as zero )