A New Hookes

Law Experiment
Fabio Menezes de Souza Lima, Gustavo Mulim Venceslau,
and Eliana dos Reis Nunes, Institute of Physics, University of Brasilia, 70919-970,
Brasilia, DF, P.O. Box 04455, Brazil; fabio@fis.unb.br

n this note we describe a Hookes law experiment that our students find to be much
more interesting than the standard lab exercise in which the force constant of a simple
spring is determined.1 In our experiment, students start with a light uniform spring having
force constant k and unstretched length lo. They
then change lo and note the corresponding
change in k. The length lo is changed in small
increments by cutting pieces off the end. The
value of k is in each case found by suspending a
known mass m from the spring and measuring
the resulting elongation x. Then k is found
using2
mg
k = .
x

(1)

It is well-known2,3 that if a spring having force

constant k is cut in half, then each piece will
have force constant 2k. Similarly, if the length
is doubled (e.g., by connecting two identical
springs end to end), then the resulting force
constant is k/2. We generalize these results by
considering any spring to be an end-to-end collection of many identical elements. The force
constant may be written as

k = ,
lo

(2)

where is a constant that depends on the

material of which the spring is made as well as
geometrical factors (e.g., diameter) other than
the length.

THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 40, January 2002

Table I. Characteristic dimensions of the steel helical spring.

The last value was obtained with the spring being vertically
suspended and without any mass attached.

Spring internal diameter

2.7 cm

Wire diameter

1.3 mm

Average distance between consecutive coils

~1.5 cm

Table II. Characteristic dimensions of the plastic spring

(notebook-binding spiral).

Spring external diameter

Wire diameter (elliptic cross section)

3.7 cm
min.: 2.2 mm
max.: 2.6 mm

Average distance between consecutive coils

~0.7 cm

Experimental Results
We used two inexpensive springs a metallic (steel) one and one made of plastic (the kind
used in spiral notebook bindings). Tables I and
II give the characteristic dimensions of the two
springs. Its important not to use a spring whose
coils are in contact when unstretched.4,5 Figures
1(a) and 1(b) are graphs showing k versus lo for
the two springs. Corresponding graphs of k versus 1/lo are shown in Figs. 2(a) and 2(b). The
lines represent linear-regression fits. In both
cases, the correlation coefficient is close to
99.9%. The slopes of the lines are equal to the
values of the parameter for the two springs.
The lines have intercepts (with k-axis) that are

35

k(N/m)

k(N/m)

lo(cm)

lo(m)

Fig. 1(b). Points obtained for the plastic spring

(spiral of notebook binding). Dashed line is just a
guide for the eyes.

k(N/m)

k(N/m)

Fig. 1(a). Points obtained for the helical spring of

steel. Dashed line is just a guide for the eyes.

1/lo (m-1)

1/lo(m-1)

Fig. 2(a). Same points from Fig. 1, but gathered in

a graph of k x 1/lo. The line represents the linearregression fit.

Fig. 2(b). The graph of k x 1/lo for the same points

from Fig. 3 (plastic spring). The line represents
the linear-regression fit.

nonzero (0.73 N/m and 0.17 N/m, respectively), suggesting that there is a lower limit on k
corresponding to the force constant in the limit
of very long initial length.

References
1. The verification of the linear relationship between the applied force F and the deformation x
produced in a common spring-mass system by
varying the suspended mass.
2. C.E. Swartz and T.D. Miner, Teaching Introductory Physics: A Sourcebook, 2nd ed. (Springer, New
York, 1998), p. 310.
3. R. Resnick, D. Halliday, and K. Krane, Physics,
Vol. I, 4th ed. (Wiley, New York, 1992), p. 336.
4. P. Froehle, Reminder about Hookes law and
metal springs, Phys. Teach. 37, 368 (Sept. 1999).
5. Glen Wagner, Linearizing a nonlinear spring,
Phys. Teach. 33, 566567 (Dec. 1995).

Comments
We have presented here an alternative approach for the study of Hookes law at the introductory level. The experimental results are very
satisfying, being in excellent agreement with
those predicted by the theoretical analysis. We
believe this laboratory exercise is an excellent
learning tool, and our experience has been that
students in our introductory physics classes find
it much more interesting than the traditional approach to Hookes law.
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THE PHYSICS TEACHER Vol. 40, January 2002