Hooke's law lab report. Hookes law and the investigation of spring constant k
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Introduction
Hooke’s law and the investigation of spring constant k
- Aim
To examine Hooke’s law and to determine the value of spring constant k.
- Introduction
Robert Hooke (1635-1708) was born at Freshwater, Isle of Wight, son of John Hooke, curate at All Saints' Church [1]. He was one of the most brilliant and versatile of seventeenth-century English scientists,who discovered the law of elasticity.Between 1658 and 1678 Robert Hooke worked on his invention of the watch-spring and developed his theory of elasticity, now known as Hooke’s law.[2]Hooke’s law states that "the extension of a helical spring is directly proportional to the weight applied, provided the elastic limit of the spring is not exceeded." [3]However, the limitation of this law is if the spring is stretched beyond its elastic limit, meaning that there is a limit to a spring where if you stretch it too much it will deform, thus the spring will have a new spring constant.[4] Below is the equation of Hooke’s law:
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Middle
This is a specific form of Hooke’s law ofelasticity.
- Method
The equipments needed in the experiment are a spring; a number of weights which each of them is 100gram heavy; a meter ruler; a ring stand; clamps; notebook and pencil. They were placed as shown in the diagram.
To begin the investigation, the spring was attached to the ring stand. Next, two of the 100-gram loads were hung under the spring and the ruler was used to measure the extension of this spring. Subsequently, 2 more loads were added and the process of measurement was repeated. The number of loads was continuously increased until the total mass reached 1 kg. Between each
Conclusion
R2 is also close to 1, which implies that the trend line is very linear. During the experiment, astonishing situations did not arise, or no anomalous features of data found. However, the spring sometimes was unstable as it moved up and down, especially when the weight was just added, making it hard to check the extension. Therefore, the errors which occurred should be mainly due to parallax. The solution to this problem could be waiting for the spring to be stable, then do the measurement.
...read more.
- References
[1]Introduction. http://www.roberthooke.org.uk/intro.htm
[Accessed 7th March 2012]
[2]Robert Hooke.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/271280/Robert-Hooke
[Accessed 7th March 2012]
[3]It’s a spring thing. http://www.hookeslaw.com/hookeslaw.htm
[Accessed 7th March 2012]
[4]Hooke’s law.http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2002.web.dir/Jones_Kevin/hookeslaw.html
[Accessed 7th March 2012]
[5]Robert Hooke, Hooke's Law & the Watch Spring http://www1.umn.edu/ships/modules/phys/hooke/hooke.htm
[Accessed 7th March 2012]
[6]Physics 1 Dynamics Experiment How Does A Spring Scale Work? Hooke's Lawhttp://www.batesville.k12.in.us/physics/phynet/mechanics/newton3/Labs/SpringScale.html
[Accessed 3rd March 2012]
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