tommy builds a human sling shot that has an elastic constant of 4000 N/m. He puts his little sister in it and pulls it back for 5 meters. How much energy does his 25 kg sister have as she leaves the sling shot and how fast is she flying?

Answer 1

The stored potential energy in the elastic material is (1/2)kX^2 = 50,000 J. That gets converted to kinetic energy when the sister is released.

Set (M/2)V^2 = 50,000 J and solve for V.

The answer I get is too fast to be safe.

Answer 2

No i'm pretty sure you are right, thank you!!!