Investigating the oscillations of a spring Introduction The aim of this experiment is to find a value for the spring constant, k, investigating the oscillations of a spring using different masses but the same number of oscillations for each one. The accepted value for k is 25 Nm-l. (F=eke) As long as the displacement is small, a mass on a spring will oscillate at time period T according to the formula: Being that T= time period (s) for 1 oscillation m= mass (keg) spring constant (Nm-l) Method
To achieve the aim, I will need to use the following apparatus: a spring, 5 masses, a clamp stand, a stopwatch and a calculator. Diagram: Firstly, I set up the above apparatus using a spring of known spring constant found in the Hooker’s law experiment, k= 25 Nm-l. Secondly, I added a 0. 1 keg mass to the spring with a small displacement and bounced it so it would start oscillating. Thirdly, I counted 20 oscillations of the spring with a certain mass and measured the time it took to reach 20 with a stopwatch.
We repeated this procedure two more times, so that I had 3 measurements in total for each mass and then calculated the average time for 20TH. Finally, I calculated the time for 1 oscillation, dividing the average by 10 and lastly, squared the answer to find P. 5 rows of results in a table. To find the error of T, I divided the average error of 20TH by 20, which would then be the same for all different masses. To calculate the errors for 20TH I found the biggest difference between the average and the highest or lowest alee within the results.
