Contestants on the game show Jeopardy! depress spring-loaded buttons to "buzz in" and provide..?

"buzz in" and provide the question corresponding to to revealed answer. The force constant on these buttons is about 130 N/m. Estimate the amount of energy it takes-- at minimum-- to buzz in.





I wouldn't even know where to start with this problem. Can anyone help?Contestants on the game show Jeopardy! depress spring-loaded buttons to "buzz in" and provide..?
the energy to compress or stretch a spring is 1/2 kx^2 where k is the spring constant and x is the distance the spring is compressed/stretched from it equilibrium point



so make an estimate of how far the push the button in..two inches? that would be 5 cm or 0.05m, if that seems reasonable to you, set x=0.05 and solve for energy:



energy = 1/2 (130 N/m)(0.05m)^2Contestants on the game show Jeopardy! depress spring-loaded buttons to "buzz in" and provide..?
What a retarded question. How can they expect you to get an answer with any kind of consistency if they don't tell you how far you must depress the button in order to buzz in?

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Contestants on the game show Jeopardy! depress spring-loaded buttons to "buzz in" and provide..?
Working backwards from the formula for the spring and knowing the answer in the back of my book, they assumed that you had to depress it 1 cm (0.01 m). How anyone would know that is beyond me though.

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