Question

You are in an temporary elevator when the rope holding it breaks. Fortunately, there is a large bumper, essentially a spring, at the bottom of the elevator shaft in case of just such a catastrophe. Your initial height above the top of the (uncompressed) spring is 1.01 m. The mass of the elevator (plus you) is 837 kg. The spring constant of the spring is 3.91 x 104 N/m. How far below the position of the top of the uncompressed spring is the bottom of the elevator when the elevator velocity is zero? In other words, how far does the elevator travel below the point where it first touches the spring? Your answer will be positive, a distance (magnitude) not a displacement (vector).

Answer 1