Question

A hand watch spring has……………energy.
A. mechanical
B. kinetic
C. potential
D. kinetic and potential

Answer 1

Hint: To solve the given problem we have to figure out the working principle of a hand watch having spring gear components. We should also understand the working mechanism of spring based hand watch.

Complete answer:
The spring-based hand watches well known as a mechanical watch firstly discovered in Europe in the 17th century. It is driven by a mainspring which must wound either periodically by hand or via an automatic winding mechanism.
The basic functionality of the spring watch is the power which is given for twisting or wounding of the mainspring is stored in the form of potential energy of the spring which helps the escapement assembly to oscillate back and forth periodically. The gears connected between mainspring and the escapement assembly are called wheel trains that turn the various speeds and allow the watches to tell the time. We can also write the expression for stored potential energy in the mainspring as-
Potential energy (U) \[ = \dfrac{1}{2}k{x^2}\], where k is the spring constant and x is the compression or displacement in spring due to twisting.

Hence, Option (C) is the correct answer.

Note: To grasp the in-depth idea about how the watch works we have to understand the main components and the working of the mechanical watch.