I need help on this problem and it would be appreciated if anyone can tell me how to figure it out. There are three springs attached together in a series, with the first one attached to a wall. There is a force of 23.4 pounds pulling on the last spring. Spring 1, the one against the wall, has k1 = 20lb/in, the one in the middle, spring 2, has k2 = 32 lb/in, and spring 3, the one with the force pulling, has k3 = 12 lb/in. What is the extension of the entire arrangement of the spring system? What is the effective spring rate for the 3 springs. The answer is 3.851 inches for the extension, and 6.076 for the effective spring rate. I just don't know how to solve this.
2007-02-25 06:51:42 · 1 answers · asked by Lemon juice 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Engineering
To find the equivilent k, it's like adding resistors in parallel.
1/Keq = 1/k1 + 1/k2 + 1/k3 = 1/12 + 1/32 + 1/20 = 1/0.16458
Thus Keq = 6.076 #/in
So x = F/Keq = 23.4/6.076
x = 3.8512 in
2007-02-25 08:43:07 · answer #1 · answered by daedgewood 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋