Scribd
Upload
25 views

Physics Spring Report

This document describes an experiment to verify the relationship between oscillation period (T) and spring constant (k) for a mass-spring system. Masses from 0.2-0.5kg were used and their oscillation periods measured with an uncertainty of ±0.04s. A graph of period squared versus mass was plotted, and its slope was used to calculate a spring constant of 27nm^-1, within the range of values found from additional trials. Sources of uncertainty are identified as the mass measurements and human timing errors.

Uploaded by

Iranova1994
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
25 views

Physics Spring Report

This document describes an experiment to verify the relationship between oscillation period (T) and spring constant (k) for a mass-spring system. Masses from 0.2-0.5kg were used and their oscillation periods measured with an uncertainty of ±0.04s. A graph of period squared versus mass was plotted, and its slope was used to calculate a spring constant of 27nm^-1, within the range of values found from additional trials. Sources of uncertainty are identified as the mass measurements and human timing errors.

Uploaded by

Iranova1994
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Title:

To verify the relationship



T = 2t (
m
k
) for a simple mass- spring system.



Mass M/kg


0.001kg
Trial 1 in s

0.04 s
Trial 2 in s

0.04 s
Trial 3 in s

0.04 s
Average in
seconds (s)

0.04 s
0.200 0.53 0.52 0.52 0.52
0.250 0.58 0.59 0.59 0.58
0.300 0.65 0.64 0.64 0.64
0.350 0.69 0.69 0.68 0.68
0.400 0.74 0.76 0.75 0.75
0.450 0.81 0.80 0.79 0.80
0.500 0.84 0.83 0.83 0.83

The average of three sound measures is, e.g.

S
ave
=
S
1
+S
2
+S
3
3
=
0.53+0.52+0.52
3
~0.52

Mass uncertainty
The mass of the weights is not relevant here, so we can ignore its uncertainty. The uncertainty in
the added masses is 0.001 kg. This is determined by the significant figures given on the mass
set.

Human error uncertainty
The human reaction time is different for a variety of people, taking the bbc reaction test, I
determined my reaction as 0.02s. My timings involved twice the human error per oscillation,
when I started the timer and when I stopped it. So therefore 0.02s x2= 0.04s

Data for graph.

Mass M/kg


0.001kg
(Average in seconds (s)

0.04 s)
2

0.200
0.27
0.250
0.34
0.300
0.41
0.350
0.46
0.400
0.56
0.450
0.64
0.500
0.69



On a hard copy of this diagram I have added the maximum and minimum value to
the diagram and therefore I ended up with three different gradients. With help of
the gradient and with the help of the formula:

T = 2t (
m
k
) we rearranged it and ended up with the formula

K =
4t
2
Ax Ay

We have

4t
2
= 39 the line of best fit above gives us the gradient 1.44

K =
39
1.44
=27.4nm
1
from this we can assume that the constant, k, is 27nm
-1
.

Taking now the gradients from the other two lines we can see that the minimum
value is 1.13 and the maximum value is 1.66. The constant for these two lines is
a.

K =
39
1.13
= 34.5nm
1

b.

K =
39
1.66
= 23.5nm
1


The experiment showed us that the constant of a spring ranges from 23.534.5, the
line of best fir showed us a result of 27nm
-1
, and based on the information Ive taken
from the internet the fact is that the constant is 27nm
-1
based on these conclusion it
fair to claim that my experiment was relatively fair, hence I have taken the
uncertainties into account, and I have therefore limited the error. Some things that
did
y = 1.4357x - 0.0211
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55

You might also like