In this exercise you will verify Hooke's law for a spring and determine the spring constant of the spring.
One end of a spring is attached to a rigid support.
Different weights are hung on the other end, and the spring stretches to different lengths.
 | In the pictures below measure the position of the free end of the spring as a function of the applied force. Always measure the position of the same physical point. Measure the position in units of meter and the force in units of Newton. |
| Use a spreadsheet to plot the applied force versus the position of the free end of the spring. | ||
| Use the spreadsheet's least-squares fitting routine to determine slope of
the straight line that best fits the data.
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| Make a prediction. If the position of the free end of the spring would be at 1.05 m, what would be the applied force? |
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To earn extra credit add your name and e-mail address to your spreadsheet. In full sentences answer the following questions.
| Did you verify Hooke's law, i.e. did you obtain a straight line plot of force versus position? |
| What is the spring constant of the spring? |
| If the position of the free end of the spring would be at 1.05 m, what would be the applied force? |
Save your Excel document (your name_exm6.xls) and attach it to an e-mail message to your instructor.
