A 5.00g bouncy ball is thrown downwards from a height of 1.50m with a velocity of 2.00m/s. If the ball?

Question

compresses 2.00*10^-3 upon impact, find its spring constant.

The answer is 4.18*10^4N/m, but I can't seem to calculate this. Can somebody please explain to me?

Answer 1

Why not consider the energy of the ball at impact. It would be the kinetic energy from the initial KE plus the gravitational potential energy change (m g h). Set that equal to the elastic potential energy of the ball at the instant the ball stops being compressed (0.5 k x^2). Solve for k, the spring constant.