Truck suspensions often have "helper springs" that engage at high loads. One such arrangement is a leaf spring with a helper coil spring mounted on the axle, as shown in the figure below. When the
main leaf spring is compressed by distance yo. the helper spring engages and then helps to support any additional load. Suppose the leaf spring constant is 5.30 x 105 N/m, the helper spring constant
is 3.80 x 105 N/m, and yo= 0.500 m.
Truck body
Main leaf
spring
-"Helper
spring
(a) What is the compression of the leaf spring for a load of 5.20 x 105 N?
X
The correct answer is not zero, m
(b) How much work is done in compressing the springs?
