Hooke's Law Lab

Introduction
The elastic properties of matter are involved in many physical phenomena. When matter is
deformed (compressed, twisted, stretched, et cetera) and the deforming forces are sufficiently
small, the material will return to its original shape when the deforming forces are removed. In such
cases, the deformation is said to take place within the elastic limit of the material, i.e., there is no
permanent deformation. The slight stretching of a rubber band is an example of an elastic
deformation. Steel wires, concrete columns, metal beams and rods and other material objects can
also undergo elastic deformations. For many materials, it is approximately true that when the
material is stretched or compressed, the resisting or restoring force that tends to return the material
to its original shape is proportional to the amount of the deformation but points in a direction
opposite to the stretch or compression. This idealized behavior of matter is called Hooke's Law.
Today’s lab will allow you to investigate Hooke’s law for a simple object, an elastic band.

Simplified Theory
Hooke’s Law is the statement that the restoring force applied by an object is proportional to the
displacement (deformation) of the object. In symbols,
(1)
Here, F is the restoring force provided by whatever is being stretched (or squeezed), Δx is the
change of length of the thing being stretched (or squeezed), and k is the constant of proportionality.
For example, if an elastic band is stretched by something in a certain direction, the elastic band will
exert a restoring force on that something. Equation (1) also says that for an object that obeys
Hooke’s law (such as a elastic band), the more it is stretched or squeezed (the greater Δx), the
greater the restoring force supplied by the object is.

In today’s lab, the object (elastic band) will be attached to a mass. Consider the forces on the mass:

If the mass is at rest:

Fnet = 0
Fnet = Fe - Fg

The ratio of the force applied by the object (F) and its resulting displacement (Δx) is called the spring
constant (k). In today’s lab we will create a table of applied forces by an elastic and the elastic‘s change
of length. Note: Equation (1) is the equation for a straight line if we choose the appropriate y-axis and x-
axis. The slope of this line represents the spring constant.

is a dressed up version of
 Due: Dec 1st Hooke’s Lab -or- Elastics and Springs
Procedure
1. Create a spreadsheet with four columns: m, f, x, and Δx. x is the length.
2. Install a clamp stand with a burette clamp near its top. Suspend an elastic band from the clamp. Measure
the length of the elastic band. Record this value in the first row of your table, with an m value of zero.
3. Attach a 50 g mass on to the elastic band. Record the initial mass of 0.050 kg. The parameter m will
represent the total mass on the elastic band.
4. Place the meter stick (or ruler) vertically alongside the hanging mass. Measure the (new) length of the
elastic band (in metres) and record in the x column. Always be sure to measure starting at the same place.
5. Add a 100 g mass to the first mass, and record this mass (0.150 kg). Read the meter stick and record the
length. before step 6: put on safety glasses

6. Repeat step 5, ten more times with various other combinations of masses totaling no more than 900 g.
Always increase the mass you add (don’t go small, big, bigger, small)
one lab per person

7. Again, Record the length of your elastic band (without any mass attached). Do not include step #7 in your
data table.
8. Collect 5 more data points for masses from 1000 g – 1600 g.
9. Record the length of your unstretched elastic band a third time.
Do not include step #9 in your
data table.

Analysis [name spreadsheet “Physics 11 – Hooke’s Law – Name”]

1. Create the F column and the Δx column in your dataUSEtable.

YOUR
spreadsheet skills
(Δx = xf - xi; xi is the original elastic length)

2. Plot the data. Plot F (y-axis) vs. ∆x (x-axis). (don't forget Labels)

3. Add a best fit line through the linear data points (spreadsheet skills). If a part of your graph becomes non-linear, create a
2nd graph of just the linear data, and submit both graphs). Find the slope of this line (spreadsheet skills).

Along with your analysis, answer the following question:

be sure to read about the theory behind the lab on the front side of this sheet first

0. The graph you created is of spring forces vs Δx, yet you only collected data about mass. How
did you change mass data into spring force data?
1. (a) What are the units of the slope, and what does this value represents in Hooke’s Law?
(b) Imagine a 0.98 kg mass is attached to your elastic; calculate the predicted length change.
2. Did your elastic band pass its elastic limit? What evidence do you have for this?
 3. Did your elastic band obey Hooke’s Law? Was this always the case?
4. Determine what the purpose of the lab was.
5. A spring (k=85 N/m) lying horizontally is stretched by 0.65 m. A 42 kg box of boxes,
starting at rest, is attached to this spring, on surface with a coefficient of friction of 0.31.
Determine the acceleration of the box.
(Hint: draw an FBD; write out an Fnet equation; solve for a; review the friction equation)

6. Consider a set of two identical springs each with a spring constant k

connected in parallel (side by side) to a single mass. What would you
expect the total elastic band constant to be of the system? Why?
(As always: FBD and Fnet equation)

Your submission should be a single file (pdf or docx). It should include both a data table and graph(s) as figures embedded in the
document.