Physics 2LC

Hooke’s Law and Harmonic Oscillation

(Pre lab assignment included)

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Objective: To experimentally study:
 Hooke’s Law of elasticity

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 Simple Harmonic motion
The static and dynamic description of elastic materials is rooted in two basic concepts: Hooke's Law and Simple

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Harmonic Oscillation. The elastic behavior of many materials can be described in terms of Hooke's Law, F = -kx. In
words: “When an elastic material is stretched or compressed (displaced) from equilibrium by an amount x, the
restoring force is proportional to the amount stretched or compressed (displacement).” When we have Hooke's Law,

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Simple Harmonic Oscillation can take place. A large spring will be used to verify Hooke's Law, and to measure
oscillation periods in a simple harmonic oscillator.

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The Apparatus:

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1. A 2-meter stick attached to a vertical support rod,
mounted on the lab bench.

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Spring
2. A movable clamp with horizontal rod to support
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the spring and masses.
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3. The spring.

4. A clear plastic plate with a black line, used to

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interrupt the PhotoGate for period measurements.

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5. Weight Set consisting of:

Photogate
a) A 50 gram hanger
b) Masses of 50 g, 100 g, and 200 g
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Plastic Plate Meter Stick

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Masses between 50 and 400 grams can be

selected, in 50 gram increments.

6. Photogate timer clamped to vertical support rod.

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7. Pasco PasPort interface, Computer with Data

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Studio software for period measurements and data

fitting.
Weight Hanger

CAUTION: DO NOT OVER-STRETCH OR TWIST THE SPRING - IT WILL NOT

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RETURN TO ITS ORIGINAL LENGTH AND SHAPE.

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 The Physics
The basics of Hooke's Law and Simple Harmonic Oscillation are well covered in your text. Following is a brief
summary.

Physics - Hooke's Law

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We will use a spring hanging vertically, stretched by weights
connected to its lower end. If we neglect the mass of the

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spring, a free body diagram for the hanging mass gives

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Ftotal = mg – kx = 0

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in equilibrium. The displacement, x, is measured from the
equilibrium position of the spring without added mass.
In the lab, we will vary the mass m and measure the =Frestoring

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corresponding displacement x for each mass. Since

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mg = kx (1)

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a plot of mg versus x will have a slope of k, the spring constant.

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Physics - Simple Harmonic Oscillator
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A simple harmonic oscillator consisting of a massless spring with constant k, and a mass m will have a period of
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oscillation (time taken for one complete cycle) T given by:

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m
T  2 (2)
k
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If the spring is stiff (large k), the period is less and vice versa. Similarly, a larger masses lead to a larger inertia and a
longer T.
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A little rearranging of eq. (2) gives

k 2
m 2T (3)
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so a plot of m versus T2 will be a straight line through the origin with a slope of k .
4 2

We will measure the variation of T as a function of m to see if this simple law applies to our system.
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 Physics -- The Spring Isn't Massless!
The spring we use isn't massless. It has a mass of almost 50 grams. How will this effect the oscillation? A fairly
simple derivation allows us to compute the effect of a massive spring.

Consider the massive spring shown below. It has a total mass M, and a length L. Let's look at the kinetic energy of a
little section of the spring of length ds located at a distance s from the fixed end.

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s s
If the end of the spring has a speed v, then the speed of this section of the spring is L v , since it is at a fraction L
ds M
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along the spring. The mass of this bit of spring is . The kinetic energy of this section of the spring is then
L
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1 ds s 1 s2 ds
dK  M( v) 2  Mv 2 3 .
2 L L 2 L
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If we add up over the whole spring, we get

 
L
1 2 s2 ds 1 s2 ds 1 L3 /3 1 M
K   dK  
L
Mv  Mv 2 0
 Mv 2 3  ( )v 2 .
2 L3 2 L3 2 L 2 3
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0
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M
So, the spring acts like an object with mass 3 . We will check this in the lab.


If we hang a mass m from a uniform spring of mass M, the effective total mass for the harmonic oscillator is
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m  13 M . Then the period of the spring plus mass oscillator will be

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M
m
T  2 3 .
k
Solving for m we get
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k 2 M
m T  (4)
 4 2 3
so that a plot of m versus T2 should be a straight line with slope of k/42 and an intercept of -M/3.


 

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 Experiment I. Experimentally study Hooke’s Law
Procedure
1. Weigh the spring, the clear plastic plate, the hanger, and the masses. Record the values in your notebook.

2. Hang the spring with the plastic plate from the metal ring of the suspension rod. This is the starting point for
your measurement of Hooke's Law. Record the height of the bottom of the plastic plate as measured on the two-
meter stick. This position is called the “zero mass position”.

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3. Make measurements of the spring elongation as a function of weight.

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 Add masses in 50 gram increments up to 250 grams. Start with the hanger alone - it is 50 grams.

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 Measure the position of the bottom of the plastic plate for each mass and record its value.

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 From the values of position for each added mass, subtract the zero mass position (found in step 2) to get the
displacement.

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 Record in your lab notebook a table of the form:

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Added Mass (grams) Added Force = mg (dynes) Position (cm) Displacement = x (cm)
0 0

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50 4.9 x 104
100 .
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.
. .
.
. .
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.
.
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Remove all extra weights from the spring and verify that it returns to the zero mass position.
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4. Fit the data to Hooke's Law

 From your windows desktop, click on the Data Studio program icon. Click on “Enter Data.” Make a plot of
F vs. x, fitting the data to a straight line using “Linear Fit”. Enter your Force values on the y-axis and your
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x values (i.e displacement values) on the x-axis.

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Data Studio Note: To name the axis labels and graph in general, you first need to click on the summary
button to the left of the timer display. This will show the “Data” window. From there you can click on
your editable data to display its properties. You can modify general graph settings by right clicking on
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the graph and selecting “Settings”.

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 Record the slope as the spring k constant for your spring.

 Print a copy of the graph for your notebook.

 Comment on how well Hooke’s Law describes the data. Record the correlation value, r, for the graph
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statistics.

5. How accurately is k measured? Determine by considering the resolution error in the measurement of x and m.
The fractional error for k is given by:

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 2 2
k  m   x 
     . (5)
k  m   x 
6. From the error in the slope by Data Studio (random error due to the scatter of data points), is the total
error dominated by resolution error or random error ?

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Experiment II: To study Simple Harmonic Motion

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Procedure
1. Start with just the spring, plastic plate and weight hanger. Clamp the photogate in position so that the plastic

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plate will hang between the sides of the photogate. Position the spring and masses so that the black line on the
plastic plate blocks the photogate when equilibrium has been reached.

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Pull the hanger down about 4 cm and release. The system will bob up-and-down with the black line crossing
through the photogate.

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2. Use Data Studio to measure the period of oscillation. Close your current session of the Data Studio program.

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From your windows desktop, click on the Physics 2LC folder. Open the “Harmonic Oscillation” file. Data
Studio will launch loading this preprogrammed activity.

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 Click the “Start” button to begin timing.
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 Click the “Stop” button after at least 10 periods have been recorded. The period values are recorded in the
column “Elapsed Time.”
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 Record the Mean time and the Standard Deviation (estimated error).
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 Print one sample table for your notebook.

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 If the spring struck the photogate or you disturbed the motion of the system while recording data, you
should redo the run.
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3. Repeat the measurement for added mass in 50 gram increments up to a total of 300 grams. You don’t need to
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print the data table each time, but do record the mean and standard deviation. Record your observations in a
table of the form:

Total Hanging Mass* (grams) Period (sec)

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100 0.887  0.004

150 .
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. .
. .

Be sure to include the mass of the plastic plate and hanger in “Total Hanging Mass”.
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You will need to reposition the spring support rod for each mass to assure that the black line on the
plastic plate properly interrupts the photogate.

Data Studio Note: You can display your different runs by clicking the Data tab in your table window and
checking the run you want to see.

4. Fit your data using Data Studio.

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  You may either select “New Activity” from the File drop down menu or add to your existing activity by
selecting “New Empty Data Table” from the Experiment drop down menu.

Data Studio Note: If you select “New Activity,” Data Studio will ask you if you want to save your current
activity. Simply say no and click on “Enter Data.” You may wish to click on the “Summary” button to
display the Data and Displays windows. You can create additional data tables by clicking the “New
Data” tab. You can create the corresponding graphs by clicking on the graph icon in the Displays

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window and linking it to the data source you want. If you select “New Empty Data Table,” you can
similarly create the corresponding graphs by clicking on the graph icon and linking it to your data.

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 Enter the data as period T on the horizontal axis, and added mass m on the vertical axis.

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 Print a copy of the graph for your notebook.

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 What kind of a mathematical curve does the graph represent ?

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 Use your calculator to modify the horizontal axis data to be T2.

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

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Plot a new graph using the modified data.

 Determine the slope and intercept using “Linear Fit”.

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 Print a copy of the graph for your notebook, and record the slope and intercept of the fit.
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5. How well does the fit slope compare to k (where you use your measured k from the Hooke's Law fit)?
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Calculate the percent error using the above expression for the predicted value of the slope.
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How well does the intercept compare with  M3 (one-third the measured mass of the spring)? Calculate the
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percent error using  M3 as the predicted value of the intercept.

6. Compare the k values obtained from experiments I and II and comment on their accuracy, based on the error
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values given in the graphs.

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Questions
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1. Under what conditions is Hooke’s law invalid?

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2. What causes the oscillations to become damped (decrease) over time?

3. What does a zero gravity environment do for experiments I and II.

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 PRE LAB ASSIGNMENT

Watch the video tutorial on “Errors and Propagation”. Use Eq. (5) to calculate the resolution
error in k, “k”, based on the resolution error in x=50 mm, when x= 1mm and the resolution
error in measuring m=50 g, is m= 1 g. Use a value of k= 12000 dynes/cm.

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