If a car has a suspension system with a force constant of $5.00\times 10^4\text{ N/m}$, how much energy must the car’s shocks remove to dampen an oscillation starting with a maximum displacement of 0.0750 m?

Video Transcript

This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. The car's shocks will have to dampen the total potential energy that the suspension system started with. That's going to be one half times the spring constant of the suspension system times its amplitude squared. So that's one half times five times ten to the four newtons per meter times 0.075 meters squared giving 141 Joules.