I am investigating the relationship between extension and load, therefore testing Hooke's Law.

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Investigating Hooke's Law

The Aim

I am investigating the relationship between extension and load, therefore testing Hooke's Law. Hooke's Law is when forces are applied to a solid object and it can result in extension or compression. Hooke's Law is able to predict how a spring (or other stretchable object) would behave when force is applied to it.

There are several factors that could effect the stretching of a spring:

· Downward force applied to spring.

· Spring material.

· Length of spring.

· No. of coils in spring.

· Diameter of spring material.

· Cross sectional area of spring.

I have chosen to investigate the downward force on the spring because it is a continuous variable.

Prediction

I predict that the bigger the weight applied to the spring, the further the spring will stretch. The reason for this assumption is based in Hooke's Law which states that extension is proportional to load. If load increases so does extension and stretching distance.

Extension = New length - Original length

To see if my prediction is correct, I will run an experiment to obtain results based on the equation reported above. I will explain the results using Hooke's Law. He found that extension is proportional to the downward force acting on the spring.

Hooke's Law: F=ke

F = Force (Newtons)
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k = spring constant

e = Extension in (Meters)

Apparatus

The equipment I used was:

Retort Stand

2x Boss Clamps

Ruler= 30cm

Weights (7x50g)

Spring

Method

In order to carry out an experiment that is both safe and fair the following precautions were taken: each part of the apparatus was checked before the practical was set up. We also made sure that the clamps were tightly secured before the weights were added. The elasticity of the springs to be used was checked before weights were added. It ...

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