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Week 3: Work and Energy

155

reason or another selected a coordinate system with the y-origin at the bottom. Then we need:

Ug (y = H) = mgH + U0 = 0

(284)

or

 

U0 = −mgH

(285)

so that:

 

Ug (y) = mgy − mgH = mg(y − H) = mgy

(286)

where in the last step we changed variables (coordinate systems) to a new one y= y − H with the origin at the top of the cli !

From the latter, we see that our freedom to choose any location for the zero of our potential energy function is somehow tied to our freedom to choose an arbitrary origin for our coordinate frame. It is actually even more powerful (and more general) than that – we will see examples later where potential energy can be defined to be zero on entire planes or lines or “at infinity”, where of course it is di cult to put an origin at infinity and have local coordinates make any sense.

You will find it very helpful to choose a coordinate system and set the zero of potential energy in such as way as to make the problem as computationally simple as possible. Only experience and practice will ultimately be your best guide as to just what those are likely to be.

3.3.3: Springs

Springs also exert conservative forces in one dimension – the work you do compressing or stretching an ideal spring equals the work the spring does going back to its original position, whatever that position might be. We can therefore define a potential energy function for them.

In most cases, we will choose the zero of potential energy to be the equilibrium position of the spring – other choices are possible, though, and one in particular will be useful (a mass hanging from a spring in near-Earth gravity).

With the zero of both our one dimensional coordinate system and the potential energy at the equilibrium position of the unstretched spring (easiest) Hooke’s Law is just:

Fx = −kx

(287)

and we get:

 

Us(x) = Z0x(−kx) dx

 

1

kx2

 

=

 

(288)

2

This is the function you should learn – by deriving this result several times on your own, not by memorizing – as the potential energy of a spring.

More generally, if we do the indefinite integral in this coordinate frame instead we get:

U (x) = Z (−kx) dx = 2 kx2

+ U0

(289)

1

 

 

 

To see how this is related to one’s choice of coordinate origin, suppose we choose the origin of coordinates to be at the end of the spring fixed to a wall, so that the equilibrium length of the unstretched, uncompressed spring is xeq. Hooke’s Law is written in these coordinates as:

Fx(x) = −k(x − xeq)

(290)