College Physics with MasteringPhysics 7th Edition by Jerry Wilson,Anthony Buffa,Bo Lou

Exercise 32

In a laboratory setup, two frictionless carts are placed on a horizontal surface. Cart A has a mass of 500 g and cart B's mass is 1000 g. Between them is placed an ideal (very light) spring and they are squeezed together carefully, thereby compressing the spring by 5.50 cm. Both carts are then released and B's recoil speed is measured to be 0.55 m/s. (a) Will cart A's speed be (1) greater than, (2) less than, or (3) the same as B's speed Explain. (a) Determine B's recoil speed to see if your conjecture in (a) was correct. (c) Determine the spring constant of the spring.