stretching a spring

• aim - to investigate the relationship between a force and extension for a spring
• 1 - use a clamp stand, two bosses and two clamps. place a heavy wight on the clamp stand to stop it falling over. attach a meter rule and a spring, the top being at the zero point on the meter rule
• 2 - make sure meter rule is vertical and the bottom of the springs wooden pointer is horizontal
• 3 - read the position of pointer on the meter rule , this is the unstretched length of the spring
• 4 - next hang a 1N weight on the spring and read the new position of the pointer on the meter rule
• 5 - continue adding 1N weights to the spring and reading the position of the pointer
• 6 - work out extension produced adding each weight , by subtracting the length of the unstretched spring from each reading
• 7 - plot a graph of extension against weight. extension is directly proportional to weight
• 8 - spring constant is found by force divided by extension