conservation of elastic potential energy?
Say a block is loaded into a spring and released. Does that mean that the elastic potential energy equals zero after the release and now is equally distributed between gravitational potential energy and kinetic energy?
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Verified answer
You're right when you say the elastic potential energy is now zero, yes. But you're not necessarily right when you say it's been distributed between GPE and KE.
At the moment after release, the gravitational potential energy will be the same (because the block hasn't moved anywhere yet) so all the energy has been converted to kinetic energy. Over time, some of this kinetic energy may get converted to GPE depending on the angle at which the block was fired.
Not equally, but otherwise yes. For example, when it reaches its highest point, it will briefly stop (when its velocity is 0). At this point, it will only have potential energy. Unless some energy has been lost to its surroungs through sound energy, it will have the same amount of energy at this point as the original elastic potential energy.
Yes.