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In a real spring–mass system, the spring has a non-negligible mass.Since not all of the spring's length moves at the same velocity as the suspended mass (for example the point completely opposed to the mass , at the other end of the spring, is not moving at all), its kinetic energy is not equal to .
A torsion spring is a spring that works by twisting its end along its axis; that is, a flexible elastic object that stores mechanical energy when it is twisted. When it is twisted, it exerts a torque in the opposite direction, proportional to the amount (angle) it is twisted.
In a collision with a coefficient of restitution e, the change in kinetic energy can be written as = (), where v rel is the relative velocity of the bodies before collision. For typical applications in nuclear physics, where one particle's mass is much larger than the other the reduced mass can be approximated as the smaller mass of the system.
The total kinetic energy of a system depends on the inertial frame of reference: it is the sum of the total kinetic energy in a center of momentum frame and the kinetic energy the total mass would have if it were concentrated in the center of mass.
While some of the energy transferred can end up stored as the kinetic energy of acquired velocity, the deformation of component objects results in stored elastic energy. A prototypical elastic component is a coiled spring. The linear elastic performance of a spring is parametrized by a constant of proportionality, called the spring constant.
For a stretched spring fixed at one end obeying Hooke's law, the elastic potential energy is Δ E p = 1 2 k ( r 2 − r 1 ) 2 {\displaystyle \Delta E_{p}={\frac {1}{2}}k(r_{2}-r_{1})^{2}} where r 2 and r 1 are collinear coordinates of the free end of the spring, in the direction of the extension/compression, and k is the spring constant.
where is the kinetic energy and is the potential energy. Hooke's law is the potential energy of the spring itself: = where is the spring constant. The potential energy from gravity, on the other hand, is determined by the height of the mass. For a given angle and displacement, the potential energy is:
In physics, Hooke's law is an empirical law which states that the force (F) needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance (x) scales linearly with respect to that distance—that is, F s = kx, where k is a constant factor characteristic of the spring (i.e., its stiffness), and x is small compared to the total possible deformation of the spring.