Hooke’s Law Set
5
®
Experiment: Discovering Hooke's Law
1.
Choose the increments of mass to be used in the experiment. Keep the
spring constant in mind when making this choice. The different
springs in the set have spring constants of approximately 4 N/m,
8 N/m, and 96 N/m.
2.
Connect the mass hanger to
the bottom of the stretch
indicator and place the first
mass increment on the
hanger. Record the stretch of
the spring and the weight of
the hanging mass. Don't
forget to include the mass of
the hanger.
3.
Add five more increments of
mass, each time recording the
stretch of the spring and the
weight of the hanging mass.
4.
Repeat steps 2-3 for a
different spring.
5.
In DataStudio, create a graph
with “Force” on the vertical
axis and “Stretch” on the
horizontal axis. For more
details, see the instructions in
Appendix B.
6.
Using y = mx + b, write an equation for each of the lines. Make
sure to include appropriate variable, numbers, and units in the
equation.
7.
The slope of the Force vs. Stretch graph in known as the spring
constant or rate. The vertical intercept represents the amount of
force needed to begin stretching the spring and is also known as the
initial tension. (See “Sample Data” on the next page.)
0
10
20
40
50
60
80
90
30
70
100
ME-9827
HOOKES
LAW
Figure 3: Setup
CAUTION: Stretching
the spring more than
twice its resting length
can damage the spring.
The maximum allowable
force for each spring is
listed under Specifica-
tions in Appendix A.
Test your mass choice
prior to trying the exper-
iment with students.
