A pinball machine uses a spring launcher to fire a ball into the play area. The spring has a spring constant of 320 N/m.
During a launch, the plunger is pulled back so that the spring is compressed by 12.5 cm, as shown in the diagram below.
Calculate the elastic potential energy stored in the compressed spring.
Use the equation:
elastic potential energy=0.5×spring constant×(extension)2 \text{elastic potential energy} = 0.5 \times \text{spring constant} \times (\text{extension})^2 elastic potential energy=0.5×spring constant×(extension)2