so this is what I get to look forward to

oh well, could be worse I guess.

Ohh there will be plenty of this: going on friday.

Stuck on some beam type problems with masses on the end and springs or dampers anywhere.

Embrace your nerdiness!!

are there beams and springs in the same problem, or beams acting as a spring as in a diving board style with a mass at the end of it?

______!______@
..............................3
Fixed on the left, _________ is the beam, ! is the dampner, @ is the mass, and 3 is the spring. Never mind the periods.
I'm tryin gto find the effective k for it.

wow, ummmm, best i could tell you is that the beam and spring *might* be considered two springs in series because they see the same load, and you could add them accordingly. Not sure if that helps, but there it is.
And the I'm not sure about how to handle the damper.

hmmm I might not even need the k for the beam. The problem doesn't give the Young'* modulus of the beam. Hmm so I guess keffective is just teh given spring constant.. Now the damping @ l=1/2m......
I still think I'm missing something...

did it give the material the beam was made out of? They may want you diving into a materials book.

Nope. I was thinking that too.
Just the picture of the beam.

does it give the natural frequency?