Modeling the Motion of a Spring Reflection

By Nick Andriese

In this project I used the cosine and sine functions to model the motion of a spring. I learned that springs work in periodic motion and repeat themselves. his project also taught me that math isn!t just used in a classroom setting" it!s meant for the real world and its pro#lems. Springs are used throughout the world. $or e%ample they!re used in the shocks of a car to control impacts" in mattresses to support your #ack" in pens for the ink head to click in or out" in scales to measure weight" in the mechanics of clocks" etc. Springs are used everywhere. By knowing the period of the spring you know how long it takes for the weight to complete on cycle &down and #ack up' #y knowing the amplitude you can know how high and low the weight goes. And #y knowing the fre(uency you can know how often the cycle happens per second. his project made me think a little differently a#out trigonometry and graphing motion of thing. I know trigonometry is huge in the real world #ecause it deals with tangi#le things that you can measure #ut it never really dawned on me that you can track a periodic motion #y using trigonometry. So now I know if anything has a repeating motion you can track that #y using trigonometry.