Question

2 (a)

We are given the force-extension characteristic of both springs, where: ! = ! and = ! Rearranging in terms of the displacement for both terms, we have: ! = (1) ! = (2)

By observation, the total displacement is given by: = ! + ! (3) By substitution of equations (1) and (2) into (3), we obtain the expression for the total extension of the spring as required: = +

Question 2 (b)

Question 2 (c):
As shown on the graph above, for values such that the displacement (x) is less than 2.5 cm (0.025m), we can apply a force (F) of value less than 30.5 N.

Question 2 (d)

Using the solve function in MATLAB, we solve the formula obtained in Question 2(a) making F the subject. We can see there are two answers given in the output; we will use the answer where all the terms are positive, because we only want positive values for F in the formula required.

The formula is hence given by: ! ( + 4 ) + ! + 2 = 2 Using this formula, the function to compute the force is as follows:
function F = Force(c,k,x) %ForceSolve - computes the value of the force (F), given a constant (c), % the spring constant (k) and the displacement (x) F = ((k^3*(k + 4*c*x))^(1/2) + k^2 + 2*c*k*x)/(2*c); end

Question 2 (e):

The following code was used in MATLAB to obtain the graph required.
c=50000; x=2.5*10^(-2); %generate a vector k within the range specified. k=linspace(100000,800000); for i=1:length(k) %iterating over each element of k %find the corresponding force value for each value of k F(i)=Force(c,k(i),x); end plot(k,F); hold on xlabel('k (N/m)'); ylabel('F (N)'); title('F vs.k, for 100<=k<=800 (kN/m)'); hold off

From the graph, it can be seen that as the spring constant k increases, the magnitude of the force F increases exponentially.

Question 2 (f):
The following code was used in MATLAB to obtain the graph required.
k=100000; x=2.5*10^(-2); %generate a vector c within the range specified. c=linspace(10000,100000); for i=1:length(c) %iterating over each element of c %find the corresponding force value for each value of k F(i)=Force(c(i),k,x); end plot(c,F); hold on ylabel('F (N)');xlabel('c (N/m^2)');title('F vs.c, for 10<=c<=100 (kN/m^2)'); hold off

From the graph, it can be seen that as the constant c increases, the magnitude of the force F decreases exponentially.

Question 2 (g):
The answers would not change, as the total extension (x) would still be the same if the order of the springs was swapped, as seen by equation (3) in Question 1(a), therefore the magnitude of the force (F) would still be the same and is not dependent on the order of the springs.