Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-1-paper-of-the-university-of-oxford/2018/10/a/solution

Take positive downward and put zero gravitational potential energy at the spring's support. The mass is then a distance below that reference, so . Hooke's law gives the elastic potential energy . Therefore
The constant term fixes the requested reference but does not affect the motion. The Euler-Lagrange equation is
This is exactly Newton's second law with gravity downward and spring force upward for positive extension. The static extension is .

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