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Objective
The purpose of our research is to determine the effect of mass on the
period of the spring’s movement. We predict that the period will grow in
accordance with the mass. Mass is our dependent variable, measured in
kilograms, and the period is our independent variable. As the masses get
larger, the period should also get larger. We hope to find some correlation
between the periods of the masses, which should follow an exponential
decay model. Mass is defined as the measure of the mass of the weights
placed on the end of the spring, and the period is the time required for the
spring to complete one full cycle.
Materials Required:
• Meter Stick
• Spring
• Mass Hanger
• Ring Stand
Preliminary Work
Spring Selection.
There were many different springs in the physics lab, but we chose one that had not
been stretched out at all, and was still tightly coiled.
Spring Height.
We used a ring stand at the height of 81.8 cm, with a weight hanger (50g) on one
end of the spring, which hung to 41.6 cm without any additional mass added.
Period
This will be calculated by us pulling the spring and the mass down an additional 4
cm, and letting go. We will then time the spring to see how long it takes for it to
complete 10 oscillations, and then divide that time by 10, to get the period for one
oscillation.
Mass
We started our mass at 200 g, and increased the mass by 20 g every time, and did
three trials per mass increment. Our weight hanger was 50 g, but we accounted for
that later.
Displacement
We used a displacement of 4 cm. Since the displacement does not affect the period
of a spring in simple harmonic motion, we picked 4 because it seemed reasonable.
Experimental Variables
The independent variable is the period of the spring. We measured this by starting a
stopwatch as soon as we let go of the spring, counting 10 complete oscillations, and
then stopping the stopwatch. We then divided our number by 10 to get the period
for one oscillation.
The dependent variable is the mass. As stated before, we started at 200 g, and
increased the mass by 20 g each time, until we reached 600 g. Our weight hanger
added an additional 50 g, which we added to our values later in the experiment.
The controlled variables were; using the same spring every time, same stopwatch,
and person starting/ stopping the stopwatch. Also, the same way we counted the
oscillations which was, all the way stretched out to all the way coiled equaled 1, per
appropriate to each mass. The starting point was also a controlled variable of ours,
the spring and the weight hanger with no additional mass always started at 41.6 cm.
The amount that we displaced the spring, 4 cm was also a constant of ours.
Observations
The data reveals a square root function
with an equation of y = √(1.52x0.65). The data trends upwards quickly, but
eventually slows and plateaus around 1.5s.
Results
The processing of the data was all done in the spreadsheet once we programmed the
formulas in
The calculated period (column 6) and the timed period (column 7) were
not the same. Ideally, they would be, however due to our errors they were
not. They were relatively close, and we can conclude that our data is
decently reliable.
Conclusion
The data did overall support our hypothesis. We predicted that as the mass
got larger, the period grew bigger. Our data followed a square root
function, and if we had kept testing larger masses, it would have plateau
somewhere between 1.5 and 2 seconds. This is due to the fact that inertia
is directly related to mass. As the mass increases, so does the inertia of the
system, making it harder, and slower to move. However, our data was not
without error. Something that could have affected our data was that our
spring had a very high spring constant; meaning that it was stiffer and
more difficult to stretch. We used the equations to find the spring constant
for every trial of different masses, and then we calculated the average
spring constant throughout the whole experiment and got 13.494 N/m.
The tighter spring has a higher frequency making the period shorter.
Additionally, our method of timing the spring was not as precise as it
could be, and our calculated uncertainty of the time was +/- 0.342s.
Another source of error could be while letting go of the mass, it may not
have gone straight up and down, but also side to side. This was a user
error, and difficult to avoid unless we had more technical equipment.
Further research could find the point at which the derivative of Graph 2
gets infinitely small. This would find the point at which the period
plateaus. It would also be interesting to test a wider range of masses. Due
to our equipment, we were unable to do a wider range without the
apparatus falling over, or the mass not moving.