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Elastic Potential Energy

Part of the Mechanics section of Coddy's Physics journey. Lesson 58 of 94.

Stretching or squeezing a spring takes work, and the spring stores it as elastic potential energy: the area under the F-x graph.

Graph of the spring force F against the stretch x: a straight line F = kx through the origin; the triangle under it, up to the stretch x and the force kx, is shaded

The stored energy is the shaded area: half of x times kx.

PE(spring) = ½ k x²

x is measured from the natural length. Twice the stretch stores four times the energy.

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Challenge

An exercise band behaves like a spring. Stretched 0.2 m, it stores 6 J of elastic energy E_s. Find its spring constant k.

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This lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.

All lessons in Mechanics

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