Home › AP Physics 1 › Physics › Oscillatory Motion and Waves › Just after a mass on a spring is released from m…
Just after a mass on a spring is released from maximum displacement, its velocity is negative because the system is:
AMoving away from equilibrium
BMomentarily completely at rest
CAccelerating away from the spring
DMoving back toward equilibrium
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: D. Moving back toward equilibrium
1. At maximum displacement the object is instantaneously at rest.
2. The restoring force then acts toward the equilibrium position.
3. Just after the start of the motion, the velocity is negative because the system is moving back toward the equilibrium point.
4. The minus sign in the velocity equation gives the correct direction for that motion.
5. The initial acceleration is also negative, back toward equilibrium, and becomes zero at that point.
_Source: OpenStax College Physics for AP(R) Courses 2e (CC BY 4.0), Ch 16 'Oscillatory Motion and Waves', sections 16.1-16.11_
Related questions
Two pendulums differing only in the mass of the bob will:If all the work done in deforming an object goes into deformation alone, that work is storA vibration differs from an oscillation in that a vibration may be:For a mass on a spring, the acceleration is obtained from the force using:Because a pendulum's period depends on gravity, a pendulum of precisely known length can bA car settling when someone gets in would keep oscillating if it were not for damping suppThe only two things that affect the period of a simple pendulum are gravity and its:A simple pendulum behaves as a simple harmonic oscillator only for amplitudes that are: