# Acceleration of spring power cart

OK this problem is probably really easy, but I totally have no idea how to handle it. Please help! Here goes:

A 20kg cart on wheels has been pushed up against a wall with a spring (k= 244N/m) between the cart and the wall. If the spring is compressed a distance of 0.1m and a force of 20N is continued to be applied toward the wall, what will the acceleration of the object be?

Related Introductory Physics Homework Help News on Phys.org
You know mass, you know k, you know dx, you know F.

F = -kx = 1/2kx^2 = ma

a = -kx/m

One question: how come kx is negative?

it is usually opposite to the direction of inertia

OK thanks for the help!

Doc Al
Mentor
ms. confused said:
OK this problem is probably really easy, but I totally have no idea how to handle it. Please help! Here goes:
To find the acceleration of an object, use Newton's 2nd law. First find the net force on the cart. There are two (horizontal) forces on the cart: the spring, pushing out from the wall; and the applied force of 20 N pushing towards the wall. Find the net force and then calculate the acceleration $a = F_{net}/m$.

The force law for springs: F = -kx, tells you the force that the spring exerts for a given stretch or compression x (from equilibrium). The negative sign means that the force is in the opposite direction of the compression. For example: If the spring is pushed in, the force it exerts pushes out.
{"found_math": true, "script_math_tex": 0, "script_math_asciimath": 0, "math_annotations": 0, "math_alttext": 0, "mathml": 0, "mathjax_tag": 0, "mathjax_inline_tex": 1, "mathjax_display_tex": 0, "mathjax_asciimath": 0, "img_math": 0, "codecogs_latex": 0, "wp_latex": 0, "mimetex.cgi": 0, "/images/math/codecogs": 0, "mathtex.cgi": 0, "katex": 0, "math-container": 0, "wp-katex-eq": 0, "align": 0, "equation": 0, "x-ck12": 0, "texerror": 0}