An agent fires a bullet into 4.5 kg wooden block resting in smooth surface and attached to a spring with constant k=180 N/m. The bullet whose mass is 7.5 g remains embedded in the wooden block. She measures the maximum distance that the block compresses the spring to be 9.5 cm. What is the speed of the bullet? And what is the max-velocity of wood and bullet together?
An agent fires a bullet into 4.5 kg wooden block resting in smooth surface and attached to a spring with constant k=180 N/m. The bullet whose mass is 7.5 g remains embedded in the wooden block. She measures the maximum distance that the block compresses the spring to be 9.5 cm.
What is the speed of the bullet? And what is the max-velocity of wood and bullet together?
From the conservation of momentum, determine the speed of the bullet-block system after the bullet enters into the block.
After entering the bullet into the block, this system compresses the spring. Thus, the kinetic energy of the bullet-block system is conserved into the spring’s potential energy. Thus, from the energy conservation of momentum, the speed of the bullet can be determined as below.
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