Spiral Spring Experiment Hooke's Law

Introduction To The Spiral spring experiment hooke's law

Hooke’s Law is a principle of physics that states that the that the force needed do extend or compress a spring by some distance is proportional to that distance. Fs = kx The law is named after 17th century British physicist Robert Hooke, who sought to demonstrate the relationship between the forces applied to a spring and its elasticity.

Aim of The spiral spring experiment hooke's law

To Verify Hooke’s law and to determine the force constant of the spring ,i.e the force required to produce unit extension.

Tools Of The spiral spring experiment hooke's law

·Spiral Spring.

·Stand And Clamps.

·Metre or half-metre rule.

·Slotted masses and hanger (or scale pan and masses).

·Stop watch.

Steps And Method of The spiral spring experiment hooke's law

-Suspend the spring so that it hangs vertically from a rigid support, and to the lower end attach the first of the slotted masses (the hanger). Clamp the scale vertically alongside the spring so that a small pointer or flag attached to the spring moves lightly against the scale. If the apparatus is not provided with a pointer, one can easily be improvised by folding a piece of gummed paper round the straight portion of the spring and cutting it to the necessary shape or alternatively by sticking a needle, by means of Sellotape or Plasticine, to the underside of the first weight.

-Record the reading of the pointer and the mass attached to the spring.

-Increase the load by successive increments of 10 or 20 g, and record the pointer reading each time. When about ten such readings have been taken, and before the spring has stretched to more than double its original unloaded length, start unloading the masses and again record the pointer readings.

Parameters, Theory And Final Law of The experiment

Parameters, Theory & Final Law

The force constant

The load

Pointer reading

Gravitational acceleration

QN·gPNcm = QN×10⁻³ kgPN×10⁻² m

= QNPN × 10⁻¹ in kg m⁻¹

Final Law

The force constant of the spring:

λ = QNPN × 10⁻¹ kg m⁻¹

Table of The Readings For Spiral spring experiment hooke's law

Table of the Readings

Length of pendulum L/m	Time for 20 oscillations			Time for 1 oscillation (periodic time) T/s	T²/s²
Length of pendulum L/m	t1/s	t2/s	Mean t/s	Time for 1 oscillation (periodic time) T/s	T²/s²

Medical Application Of The Spiral Spring Hooke's Law Experiment

In Pacemakers, springs are used to make sure that the leads that connect the electrical circuits to the heart do not become dislodged.

Frequently Asked Questions About Spiral Spring Experiment Hooke's Law

Why does the experiment involve both loading and unloading measurements?

Taking readings while adding weights and then again while removing them helps average out small errors from friction or hysteresis in the spring, giving a more reliable value for each pointer reading.

What does the force constant (k) actually tell you about a spring?

It measures the spring's stiffness — a higher force constant means more force is needed to stretch the spring by a given distance. This value is exactly what determines how a spring behaves in devices like pacemaker leads or surgical staplers.

Why must the spring not be stretched beyond double its original length?

Hooke's Law only holds within a spring's elastic limit. Stretching it too far causes permanent deformation, after which the relationship between force and extension is no longer linear, and the calculated force constant would be inaccurate.