Question

A 100g toy car is propelled by a compressed spring that starts it moving.The compression of the spring is 18cm. It coasts up the frictionless slope, gaining 0.2 min altitude.The speed of the car at this altitude is 0.5 m/s. Find the spring constant.

Would the way to approach this be
.5mv^2 = mgh + .5kx^2
I'm stuck because it doesn't provide max height, so there is still both kinetic energy and potential energy, and I'm not sure if I have put it together correctly
bobpursley
No that is not the way.
first, find the initial KE: it is equal to the 1/2 kx^2
then, that has to equal the energy at .2 altitude.
1/2 kx^2=mgh + 1/2 mv^2

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