Mass and Hooke’s Law Essay

Submitted By jkelley100
Words: 579
Pages: 3

Name James Kelley Masses and Springs
Go to http://phet.colorado.edu/simulations/sims.php?sim=Masses_and_Springs and click on Run Now.

You will focus on the following in your questioning and testing:
Hooke’s Law—the stretch of the spring (put friction on to get it to stop bouncing)

Make sure you write your questions as specifically as possible. Then, experiment to answer your question, organizing your data in a table. Finally, answer your question with as many details as possible! You will ask as many questions as it takes to completely investigate all aspects of Hooke’s Law.

Answer the following questions.

1. Determine the spring constant, k, of Spring 1, by using Hooke’s Law. Take three different measurements (since 3 masses) and do three calculations and average your k’s to get a more accurate answer. By applying lots of friction, you will be able to get your mass to hang still. Show a table of your data and your calculations of k.

M
A
M(A)= F

X
F / X = k
100 g
9.8 m/s^2
980

9cm
-108.8
50g
9.8 m/s^2
490

5cm
-98
250g
9.8 m/s^2
2450

24cm
-102.08

-102.08+-98+-108.8= -308.88/3= -102.96

Average k = -102.96

2. Determine the three unknown masses: Red, Green, and Gold. Use Hooke’s Law to determine the masses. Show all data and calculations.

The next four questions ask you to investigate the effects different parameters have on Hooke’s Law. Answer the question and tell what you did on the simulation to come to your conclusions.

3. Explain the effect of mass on Hooke’s Law.

The effects mass have on Hooke’s Law is that it is one of the defining variables that helps calculate the energy. The mass effects how much energy is put on the spring and how far it stretches. I came to this conclusion through the simulation by using the different masses and observing the differences between the different masses.

4. Explain the effect of gravity on Hooke’s Law by checking out what happens in the four different locations, as well as when there is no gravity.

Gravity also is one of the defining variables that help calculate the energy. With gravity,