Randall D. Knight — Interactions and Potential Energy: Problem 47

You have a ball of unknown mass, a spring with spring constant 950 N/m, and a meter stick. You use various compressions of the spring to launch the ball vertically, then use the meter stick to measure the ball’s maximum height above the point at which it is released. Your data are as follows: Compression (cm) | Height (cm) 2.0 | 32 3.0 | 65 4.0 | 115 5.0 | 189 Use an appropriate graph of the data to determine the ball’s mass.