hooks law lab

Taha Al-Yousif

Hooke’s Law Lab

Date conducted: September 18th 2013
Partners: Mohammed, Liam, Ben Nguyen

Purpose:
The purpose of this experiment is to find the relationship between the stretch of the spring and the attached mass and to verify that this relationship is accurately described by Hook's Law.
Theory:
Hooke's Law states that to extend a spring by an amount (Stretch) from its previous position, one needs to add an external force (Mass). Therefore in order to verify Hooke's Law, you must verify that the mass (M) and the stretch(X) of the spring are proportional to each other.

Apparatus:
I used a:
1. Pole stand
2. A clamp
3. A spring
4. 5 (0.050 kg) (Mass)
5. Metric Stick
6. Paper (For recording data)
7. Pen
8. Graph paper

Procedure:
Step 1: Collected all the materials needed to function this experiment
Step 2: hang a spring from a horizontal metal rod.
Step 3: Calculated the length of the spring without any external force added to it.
Step 4: Add 50 g to the spring and record the new length of the spring.
Step 5: Add another 50g to the spring and recorded the new length.
Step 6: Repeat step 5 until the total mass added to the spring reached 250g.
Data:
m/kg (Mass)
0
0.050
0.100
0.150
0.200
0.250 l/m (length)
0.05
0.07
0.085
0.105
0.12
0.14 x/m (Stretch)
0
0.02
0.035
0.055
0.07
0.09

Ex. of how to find Stretch = 0.085m – 0.05m = 0.035 m

Analysis:

Finding the Equation: y2 - y1 0.055m – 0.035m 0.02 m Slope: 0.4mkg-1 x2 – x1 0.15 kg – 0.1 kg 0.05 kg
Equation: X= (0.4mkg-1) (m)
Discussion:
Yes my experiment agreed with the theory
Possibilities of error include:
The ruler sliding from its position thus altering the length being measured.
The ruler was old and round on the edges so it was hard to balance it on the table
If the