Hello everyone! Here I am again. Today we are going to find the answer to the exercise “Scallops use muscles to close their shells. Opening the shell is another story–muscles can only pull, they can’t push.” Follow along to find out the results!

Question: Scallops use muscles to close their shells. Opening the shell is another story–muscles can only pull, they can’t push.

Here is our question: Scallops use muscles to close their shells. Opening the shell is another story–muscles can only pull, they can’t push. Instead of muscles, the shell is opened by a spring, a pad of a very elastic biological material called abductin, with an effective spring constant of 12.5 N/mm. When the shell closes, the pad compresses; a restoring force then pushes the shell back open. The energy to open the shell comes from the elastic energy that was stored when the shell was closed,shows smoothed data for the restoring force of an abductin pad versus the compression. When the shell closes, the pad compresses by 0.15 mm. How much elastic potential energy (in mJ) is stored?

Answer

This is the theory of calculating elastic potential energy in physics. Methods of solving problems of gravitational potential energy and elastic potential energy:
Basic form of potential energy exercises:
Wt=mgz​
in there:
Wt : gravitational potential energy (gravity field potential) (J)
m: mass of the object (kg)
g: acceleration due to gravity (acceleration in free fall) (m/s2)
z: height of the object above the selected potential origin (m)
Variation of gravitational potential energy
Wt1 – Wt2 = A=P.s=mg.s​
In there:
A: work of gravity (J)
Elastic potential energy
Wt=0.5k(Δl)2​​
in there:
Wt: elastic potential energy of spring (J)
k: spring stiffness (N/m)
Δl: spring deformation (m)
Mechanical protection:
Wt1 + Wd1=Wt2 + Wd2=…=const

Applying the formula to the problem we get the following result:

Relevant knowledge

By definition in the field of mechanics, potential energy is a scalar potential field of a conserved force field. Potential energy, like other scalar potential fields, will change in value according to the convention of potential energy at the datum.
So, when there is deformation, everything can do work, and the work done is now considered a form of energy called elastic potential energy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we’ve helped you with the question “Scallops use muscles to close their shells. Opening the shell is another story–muscles can only pull, they can’t push.” Thanks for reading and have a nice day!