Amoving car has 40,000 j of kinetic energy while moving at a speed of 7.0 m/s. a spring-loaded automobile bumper compresses 0.30 m when the car hits a wall and stops. determine the bumper's spring constant.

To solve this problem we will apply the energy conservation theorems for which the elastic potential energy is equivalent to the kinetic energy, this is

Here,

m = Mass

v = Velocity

k = Spring constant

x = Displacement, our values are given as,

Replacing we have that

Therefore the bumper's spring constant is 888889N/m

hi there!

out of the two, (b) precision would be more reasonable.   however, both a and b could be pretty reasonable.

-awesomerepublic   : )