During part one of the experiment, the vertical displacement of a spring was measured as a function of force applied to it. The starting position of the spring was recorded using a stretch indicator. Mass was added to the spring, and the displacement was recorded. This was repeated with various amounts of mass. From these data, a graph of force versus displacement was plotted, and a linear fit slope revealed the spring constant. In this endeavor, the spring constant was valued at 3.53 N/m.
However, when applying this spring constant to the recorded displacements in the Hooke’s Law equation, the calculated forces are lower than the recorded forces. In similar manner, when rearranging Hooke’s Law to solve for displacement, the calculated displacements are larger than the actual recorded displacements. This means there was human error, most likely in terms of not being precise with the displacement readings because the recordings for the masses used were accurate. Because such small masses were used, any error in displacement readings was augmented. The spring used may also not have been perfect.
During part two of the experiment, the period of the spring was measured as amplitude changed while mass remained constant. The period remained nearly the same throughout every trial, which was to be expected. Any differences in period may be accounted to inadequate stopwatch usage and inaccurate starting displacements throughout the trials. It should be noted that at amplitude of 0.100 m, the hook lost contact with the spring for a split second at the apex of oscillation, which accounts for its oddity in period. This was something that could not be avoided; at that amplitude the spring pulled the hook up too quickly which caused the loss of contact. The resulted graph of period versus amplitude yielded a linear fit slope of close to 0 (-0.247 s/m), which was predicted.
During part three of the experiment, the period of the spring was measured as mass was varied while amplitude remained constant. As the mass was increased, the period also increased. This was not surprising considering the given equations. The square of the period versus mass for each trial was plotted and a linear fit was taken. The slope and y-intercept of this line was then used to determine the spring constant and C, the fraction of the spring’s mass that should be taken into account for the equation T = 2π ( [M + Cms] / k )0.5. The calculated value of k was 3.75 N/m, which is only 6.04% different from the value determined earlier of 3.53 N/m. The value of C was determined to be 0.694, which is closest to the whole number fraction of 1/3. Any error during parts two and three can be attributed to inaccurate stopwatch recordings and slight variance in displacement and release of the masses at each amplitude.