Hooke′s Law and Simple Harmonic Motion.doc

Hookes Law and Simple Harmonic Motion Purpose The purpose of this lab experiment is to study the behavior of springs in static and dynamic situations. We will determine the spring constant, , for an individual spring using both Hookes Law and the properties of an oscillating spring system. It is also possible to study the effects, if any, that amplitude has on the period of a body experiencing simple harmonic motion. Background If an applied force varies linearly with position, the force can be defined as where is called the force constant. Once such physical system where this force exists is with a common helical spring acting on a body. If the spring is stretched or compressed a small distance from its equilibrium position, the spring will exert a force on the body given by Hookes Law, namely (1) where is known as the spring force. Here the constant of proportionality, , is the known as the spring constant, and is the displacement of the body from its equilibrium position (at = 0 ). The spring constant is an indication of the springs stiffness. A large value for indicates that the spring is stiff. A low value for means the spring is soft. Generally speaking, springs with large values can balance larger forces than springs with low values. The negative sign in Equation 1 indicates that the direction of is always opposite the direction of the displacement. This implies that the spring force is a restoring force. In other words, the spring force always acts to restore, or return, the body to the equilibrium position regardless of the direction of the displacement, as shown in Figures 1a - 1c. ? ? ? ? ? Figure 1a.When the displacement is to the right ( 0) the spring force is directed to the left ( 0). ? Figure 1b.When the displacement is to the left ( 0) the spring force is directed to the right ( 0). ? ? ? ? ? Figure 1c. In both cases shown in Figures 1a and 1b, the effect of the spring force is to return the system to the equilibrium pos