Diagram:
The masses will make the spring oscillate and we will count 10 oscillations and record the time with a stopwatch, then you divide the time by 10 and you will get a time for just one oscillation. However, when we are timing the oscillation for one mass, I should imagine that the oscillations are very quick, and therefore very difficult to time each one. So to overcome this problem, I will time every 2 oscillations. In this case, a total of 20 oscillations will be counted instead of 10. So when inputting the results I will simply divide the result by 20 to instead.
By taking the average it eradicates any anomalies and also there is less margin of error if a larger area of results are taken. Also, It would be very difficult to count the time taken for just one oscillation, as it is very quick , sometimes less than one second, so I would get the time completely wrong, and it would be very inaccurate, so for this reason timing 10 oscillations is more accurate.
The amount of weights will be differed. About 7 weights will be used in total. Each weight weighs approximately 50g, but to make the experiment even more accurate the weight of each mass will be measured to two decimal places, so the weight will be more exact.
The length that the spring is pulled down to doesn’t affect the experiment. So it doesn’t matter for how long I pull the spring down. I know this as I tested this in the preliminary experiment that I did. I proved that the amplitude doesn’t affect the period.
PRELIMINARY EXPERIMENT:
The same weight was used for all three tests, and from this data you can see that the time taken for 10 oscillations is always more or less the same even when the amplitude is differed. This shows that the amplitude is not a factor of the experiment.
If there is a lot of sideways movement in the spring and weight carrier when oscillating then a string will be used to hold the spring from the clamp. This will make the results more accurate because it increases the length of the ‘pendulum’ and therefore I know that some of the sideways movement will be eliminated.
Each test will be repeated 4 times to make sure there are no anomalies and to make sure our results are fairly concordant. Then, the average will be taken, again, because there will be less margin of error, as strange results are to be covered up by the average.
A spring is a device made of an elastic material that undergoes a significant but reversible change in shape, or deformation, under an applied load.
Springs are used in spring balances for weighing and for the storage of mechanical energy, as in watch and clock springs or door-closing springs. Springs are also used to absorb impact and to reduce vibration, as in coil or leaf springs used for motor car suspensions. The specific form of a spring depends on its use. In a spring balance, for example, it is normally wound as a helix, and its elongation is proportional to the applied force, so that the spring can be calibrated to measure this force.
I predict that as the mass increases the time taken to complete one oscillation will also increase. The more mass, the more gravitational potential energy it will have, so the further it will be pulled down, so therefore the period should be bigger because the spring pulls down to a further distance. I also predict that the time of one oscillation will be somehow related to the amount of mass applied to the spring and springs elastic constant. I did some research and found out that it is claimed in nearly every textbook that the period may be found from the relation:
T=period
