- The Thickness of the spring
- The length of the spring
- The material of the spring
The things that will vary throughout the experiment will be the mass and the extension. But I will only investigate and vary the mass myself because the extension will change as a cause of the mass being changed.
This test will be kept fair by using the same weights making sure they are all 50 grams and I will place them on the spring carefully and wait to measure it when the spring has stopped moving. The most important factor I MUST use to keep this a fair test is to take accurate measurements after I measured the extension.
Safety:
The Safety precautions I must take for this experiment are, safety goggles to protect the eyes just encase the spring snaps and then the metal off the spring will be flying about. I will also have to make sure my feet are clear from underneath the weights, again encase the spring snaps then the weights will fall towards the floor. I must not overload the spring and apply to much pressure on to the spring and I will be careful in the way I place the weights on to the spring.
Method:
First of all in this experiment I will need to apply all the equipment correctly and set it up in the way it is shown in the diagram. Then I will measure how big the spring is when there is no force applied on to the spring, then after that we take the measurement of the spring and then I will go up in 50 grams until I reach 400grams of weight on to the spring and the measurements will be recorded into centimetres of the extension of the spring.
Results Table:
Analysis of Graph:
I can tell you from my graph that the investigation operated successfully because all the points were near to the line of best fit. The extension always increases when the mass increases. there are no outstanding anomalous results the furthest away is at 400 grams and that is still pretty close to the line.
Conclusion:
This experiment has showed that I was only half right in my prediction, I did say that the extension will increase when the mass has increased, that was the correct part. The bit where I was wrong was when I said the extension would double when the mass doubles. I think the test what I carried out was near enough fair where the spring could of still been moving when I took the recording of the extension measurement because it took a long time before the spring to stop moving when the force was applied on to the spring. So when relating back to the aim of the original investigation the extension was effected when more mass was applied. there are many different interpretations I could of used in this experiment such as changing the length of the spring, the material of the spring or the thickness of the spring. This could of all had a major effect on the final outcome of the results. Due to my foreknowledge on hookes law it was easy to roughly predict what the results were going to be. This shows my scientific knowledge was correct about on my final outcome by saying that the extension will get bigger when force is applied.
Evaluation:
My experiment managed to produce some very good results even though my prediction was only half right but the results was supported well by my scientific knowledge. This helped me produce a graph of a good standard with all points near to the line of best fit. The results could have been a tiny bit inaccurate because of the spring making small movement when I measured the extension. If I was to do this experiment again I would give myself more time and I won’t just do this in 1 day I will come back another day and repeat it again so my results will be more accurate. Overall I think this investigation was a success because I come out of it with successful results and a well attained graph.
Charlie Taylor-Hill
