Lab:Springs

Readthesectioninyourtextthatdescribes
thecharacteristicsofanideaspring.Youcan
lookitupintheindexunderHookesLaw.
Afterreadingaboutidealsprings,designan
experimenttoinvestigatewhetherthebooks
explanationofspringbehaviourisconsistent
withthespringswehaveintheclassroom.
Usetheplanningdiagramtodescribeyour
plan.

Purpose:Writeapurposestatement.
Theory:Writeyourtheoryby
predictingwhatyouexpecttofindasan
answertothequestioninyourpurpose.Use
asmanyrepresentationsaspossibleincludinganequation,agraph,andexplanation.
Includeatleastonereferencetoyourtext.

Procedure:Writeaprocedureinstepform.Includeadiagram.
Data:Takemeasurementsandincludeadatatable.Makesuretolabelthecolumns
andincludeuncertaintyandunits.Youshouldbeabletomakesomequalitative
observationsaboutthesprings.Organizeyouqualitativeobservationsandincludeinyour
datasectionalongwithyourotherreporteddata.

Analysis:
Spring1
GraphFvs.x(springextension).Drawthebestfitline.
Analysisiswhatonedoeswiththedatainordertointerprettheinformationgivenby
theobservations.Inordertointerpret,theinformationmustbeorganized.Examples
ofhowdataisorganizedincludetablesandgraphs.Oncetheinformationisorganized
youshouldbeabletolookattheinformationandfindgeneraltrendsorpatterns.The
goalisthatthesetrendsandpatternswouldgiveusinformationtohelpanswerthe
questionposedinthepurposesection.
Fromthetable:Lookatthedatatableanddescribewhatittellsyouabouthowthe
forcechangesastheextensionofthespringchanges.
Fromthegraph:Rememberthattherearethreekindsofinformationthatarepossibleto
readfromagraph.Theyare:
1)

PHY114:LabSprings

2)

3)

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Lab:Springs

Youwillnowlookateachoftheseanddecidewhetheritgivesinformationtoanswer
thequestionposedinthepurpose.
1) CoordinatesorPoints:Identifyapointonyourbestfitlinethatwasnota
measuredpoint.Tellwhatinformationitgives.
Doesitpertaintothequestion?How?
Onyourgraph,identifythepointcalledtheintercept.Whatinformationdoesit
giveaboutthespring?
2) Slope:Findtheslopeoftheline.Thisvalueisknownaskthespringconstant.
(Dontforgetyourunits.)Thisconstantdescribesthespring.Writethekvalue
forthisspringonthegraph.
Doesthispertaintothequestion?Howdoesitdescribethespringforceand
relatedtothespringextension?
3) Area:Findtheareaunderthebestfitlinebetweenextensionequalszerotothe
fullamountyoumeasured.
Now,lookattheunitsforthisvalue.Theseunitsdonotmatchthequantities
mentionedinthepurpose?Lookinyourtextfortheseunits.Whatkindof
quantitywillhavetheseunits?Wewillstudythisinthenextunit.
Writetheequationofthebestfitlinefromthegraph.
ExplainhowyourresultsforSpring1leadtoananswertothequestionposedinyour
purposestatement.Howdoesthiscomparetowhatyousuggestedinyourtheory?
Onewaytotestthevalidityoftheanalysisistogeneralizeandthensuggestwhatmight
happeninanotherrelatedexperiment.Inthiscase,wemightincludesomethinglikethat
bydoingthefollowing:
Predicthowyourgraphlinewouldbedifferentifyouhadusedamuchstiffer
spring.Howwillthekforthestifferspringcomparetothekforyourspring?
Explainwhyyoupredictedthisway.
Spring2:
Nowcheckyourpredictionbytakingdatafromaspringthatisdifferentfromtheonethat
youused.Addthistoyourgraph.Makesurethatyouaddalegendorkeytoyourgraph
becauseitwillhavemorethanonelinenow.
Explainhowyourresultsforspring2leadtoananswertothequestionposedinyour
purposestatement.Howdoesthiscomparetowhatyousuggestedinyourtheory?

PHY114:LabSprings

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Lab:Springs

Conclusion:Writeastatementthatanswersthequestionyouaskedinthepurpose.
Beasspecificaspossible.Besuretoincludebothsprings.

PHY114:LabSprings

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