I see now. Thank you. I guess when I read the problem, I was thinking the mass would come to rest at ##\frac{h}{3}## but I was wrong, and I suppose the nature of the problem wouldn't allow that to happen if the spring force eventually equals the gravitational force after the mass travels some...
Well, this was how I interpreted the first part. The mass would eventually come to a rest and the gravitational force, ##mg## would equal the current spring force ##k\frac{h}{3}## and you solve for k as was done in the attached solution. But this led me to believe that if you if let the mass go...
I'm not sure I'm understanding you. Isn't the block indeed released from rest? I interpret the problem being that the block is placed on the spring, and the weight of the block compresses the spring a distance of ##\frac{h}{3}## until the spring force now, ##k\frac{h}{3}##, equals the...
So, my question is pertaining more to a specific part of this problem than actually calculating ##P## which I get to be ##P = \frac{kh}{2} - mg##. But I need ##P## in terms of a multiple of ##mg## so I need to find ##k##.
The solution attached uses the fact that when the object comes to a rest...