Determination of the spring constant from the relationship between a mass

attached to a spring and the period of oscillation of the spring–mass system

This lab is designed to help you to better understand experimental uncertainty and write great lab reports.

Open the website https://ophysics.com/w1.html

Introduction

In this practical, you will use measurements of the period of oscillation of a spring to determine its spring
constant experimentally. You will then compare the value obtained to the known value.

The period T of the oscillations of a point mass m suspended from an ideal spring of spring constant k is
given by:

m
T = 2π
k

The equation above can be written as:

4π 2
T2 = m
k

2 4π 2
so that the gradient of a T vs. m graph is equal to .
k
 Procedure

1) Set the value of the initial spring stretch and the spring constant to the values shown below. Choose
the fast animation speed (I found that choosing a low speed/large mass makes the error bars invisible,
which de es one of the main purposes of this exercise.)

2) Do not change the value of the spring constant during the experiment. The initial spring stretch will be
the amplitude of the oscillations and should also remain constant throughout the experiment.

3) Set the mass of the block to an initial minimum value of 1.0 kg. Run the simulation and measure the
time for the system to complete 20 full oscillations. Use the timer in the green area.

Note: the time it takes the end of the spring to go from one extreme to the other is half a period. One
full period is the time it takes to return to the initial position (on the same side).

4) Press Reset and repeat four more times for this mass. Your measured average time will have a
random error because each time you are likely to pause the clock at a slightly di erent time. (Do not
arti cially throw away runs that di er from the previous ones, unless you made a mistake. The
di erences in time will give you the experimental random uncertainty.)

5) Record your measurements in an appropriate raw data table.

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 6) Repeat the process (steps 3–5) at least four more times, each time increasing the mass by 0.1 kg.

7) For each mass calculate:

a) the average time for 20 oscillations and the uncertainty of repeated measurements

b) the period of one oscillation and the relevant uncertainty

c) the square of the period and the relevant uncertainty.

Record these calculations in a separate table.

Reminders:

The uncertainty in t (the time for 20 oscillations, that you measured 5 times for each mass) is obtained as
tma x − tmin
Δt = .
2
1
The period for one oscillation ( T ) and its uncertainty are of these.
20
The uncertainty of T 2 is obtained from the formula for a power y = a n on the Formula Booklet! This
formula can be rearranged to nd

Δ(T 2) = 2TΔT
(Check that you have understood this.)
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8) Using nPlot, plot a graph of the square of the period T 2 against mass m (i.e. T 2 on the y-axis
4π 2
and m on the x-axis, so that the gradient of the resulting line equals ). Use the values of
k
uncertainty of T 2 to draw y-error bars. (Ignore the x-error bars.)

9) Draw a best- t line for your points and take note of its gradient.

10) From the value of the gradient, calculate the experimental value of the spring constant:

4π 2
k=
gradient
11) Determine the gradient uncertainty by drawing lines of maximum and minimum slope (see the
instructions for using nPlot) and calculating the corresponding values of kmin and kma x. Make sure
that your lines of maximum/minimum slope goes through ALL the error bars, if possible. Use them
to calculate the uncertainty of the experimental value of k. Give your answer as k ± Δk. Include the
unit!

12) Compare the known value of k from the simulation site with the experimentally determined one.

Question to test your understanding:

m
How could you use the same formula T = 2π to determine the unknown mass of an object
k
attached in turn to 5 springs of di ering spring constant?

Write your lab report:

The goal is writing a concise, readable and clear lab report.

- Include an introduction written for someone who knows some physics but doesn’t know what
experiment you did. Explain the purpose of your experiment, any background theory needed to
understand it (this will include the relevant formula(s)), and brie y state the method to be used.

- Detail the procedure you used. (Do not use “cookbook” style; instead, state what was done.)
- Include a raw data table.
- Explain how you processed your data and how the experimental error propagated. Include the
formulas you used to obtain your processed data. (One example calculation may be included if
necessary. By no means should you include all the error calculations, this makes your report
repetitive, boring, and not concise.)

- Include a processed data table.

- Include a graph with labelled axes and a caption or headline. State how you extracted the
quantity you are trying to determine (in this case the spring constant) and its uncertainty from your
graph.

- Give your result, including the uncertainty and the unit. State how it compares to what you
expected (for example a known value, if such a value exists).

- If there were any issues with your experiment, discuss how your experiment could be improved.
- Answer the question above.
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This is how my graph looked.

Relationship between the square of the period of an oscillating spring and the mass attached to it.