 Activity
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| You have completed your measurements and data collection and are now ready to analyze the data.
Proceed with the following instructions:
- Each person in the group should calculate the weight in Newtons, N of several masses in the group data table so that each mass has a corresponding weight.
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| If you have not thought about physics in a while, the weight in Newtons is the mass in kilograms multiplied by the acceleration due to gravity (9.8 m s−2).
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- Record the results in the weight column of the data table.
- Discuss the results in the data table within your group to determine if there are any incorrect calculations.
- Plot a Displacement vs Weight graph for the individual data points.
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| The independent variable for this graph is the
weight and should go on the x-axis (horizontal). The dependent variable is the displacement and should go on the y-axis (vertical) of the graph.
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- Draw a best fit straight line through the individual data points.
- Calculate the slope of the best fit straight line.
- Record the slope with its units in your notebook or on this wiki page.
- Hooke's Law states that the force on the mass due to the spring is directly proportional to the displacement of the spring. This looks very similar to the slope except that you measured the weight not the force due to the spring. Do you remember the relationship between the weight and the force due to the spring from the first multichoice question? Record the relationship between the weight and the force due to the spring.
- Determine the spring constant for Spring #1 for the individual data points.
- Record the spring constant in your notebook or this wiki page for both the individual data.
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Example table for recording the slope and spring constant for your experiment.
| Slope (m/N)
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Spring Constant (N/m)
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Discussion
| Do you have any stray data points? If so discuss what could be the source of error.
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Activity
