A toy car is held at rest against a compressed spring, as shown in the figure. (

Question

A toy car is held at rest against a compressed spring, as shown in the figure. (Figure 1) When released, the car slides across the room. Let x=0 be the initial position of the car. Assume that friction is negligible.

http://session.masteringphysics.com/problemAsset/1013383/29/1013383.jpg

Sketch a plot of the elastic potential energy of the spring from the point at which the car is released to the equilibrium position of the spring. Make your graph consistent with the given plot of total energy (the gray line given in the graphing window).

If you could please provide me x,y points to get a better diagram

Explanation / Answer

Potential energy = 1/2 kx^2. It is going to be a quadratic curve. Keep in mind at x=0 it is compressed and has maxium potential energy. As it stretches to equilibrium, the potential energy decreases parabolically to 0.

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