3.06 Stretching Forces

3.
06 Stretching forces
Study the relation between force and extension for springs
State Hooke's law and recognise the significance of the term limit
of proportionality
 Use your laptops and work as a group to learn and
understand how does weight affect the length of a
spring, by focusing on the following points:
a. Elastic and plastic
b. Hooke’s experiment
c. Extension-Load graph
d. Elastic limit and proportionality limit
Remember that we will use the student-led teaching

strategy, after 30 mins from the activity so prepare well!
BYOD activity:
 If you bend a ruler slightly and release it, it springs
back to its original shape. Materials that behave like
this are elastic . However, they stop being elastic if
bent or stretched too far. They either break or become
permanently deformed (out of shape)
 If you stretch or bend Plasticine, it keeps its new

shape. Materials that behave like this are plastic
Elastic and plastic

 To study the relation between the extension of a spring
and the load applied, a steel spring is attached to a
with a hanger to hold different weights, and the rule is
used to read the scale upon each load exerted.
 As the load is increased , the spring stretches more.
 Its extension is the difference between its stretched

and unstretched lengths.
 The readings were plotted in a graph where the vertical
axis is the dependent variable extension in mm and the
horizontal axis is the independent variable load in N
or vice versa.
 The size of extension of a spring when pulled depends
on the type of material it is made of. However, force
applied is always proportional to the extension.
Extension-load graph
Up to point X:
 Line has constant slope and passes through the origin
 If load is doubled, the extension is doubled and so on
 Extension / load , always has the same value
 X is called limit of proportionality , where extension is
directly proportional to stretching
Up to the point E: load

 The spring behaves elastically and returns to its
original length when load is removed. This point is
called elastic limit
Stretching a spring
Beyond E:
 Proportionality limit is passed and on removing the
force some of the extension (OS) remains.
 When stretching load is on the y-axis , the gradient is k

and when it is on the x-axis the gradient is 1/k
 In stretched spring-load graph, the graph will not start

from origin , because it has either x-intercept or
y-intercept that represents the unstretched spring
length.
Extension-load graph
 The findings stated were first investigated by Robert
Hooke in 1660 as follows:
"A material obeys Hooke's law if, beneath its elastic
limit, the extension is proportional to the load"
 Spring constant: is the force needed to cause unit

extension, i.e. 1 m, it can be calculated as follows:
extension ∝ load or k = F / x or F = kx
 Where:
1. F: Force (N)
2. k: Spring constant (N/m)
3. x: Extension (m)
Hooke’s law
Ex 1. A spring is stretched 10 mm by a weight of 2.0 N.
Calculate:
a. The force constant k
b. The weight w of an object that causes extension of 80 mm
 Aa: k = F /x = 2.0 N / 0.01 m ≈ 200 N/m

 Ab: w = F = kx = 200 N/m x 0.08 m = 16 N
Example 1
Ex 2. Two girls want to weigh a watermelon, but they do
not have a kitchen scale. So they use a spring and a 1 kg
bag of sugar to measure. When suspended the bag of
sugar stretches the spring by 50 mm, while watermelon
stretches the spring by 75 mm.
Assuming that the extension of the watermelon is within
the limit of proportionality. Calculate:
a. The spring constant of spring
b. The weight of the watermelon
a) k = F / x = 1 x 9.8 / 0.05
k = 196 N / m
b) w = F = kx
w = 196 x 0.075 = 14.7 N
Example 2
Ex 3. The extension load graph on the right is for a rubber.
How can you tell from the graph whether the rubber obeys
Hooke's law or not?
The gradient of the load-extension graph at any point

isn't constant, even though, the line passes through the
origin. Therefore, Hooke's law isn't obeyed at all because
extension isn't proportional to load at any point.
Example 3
Ex 4. A student measures the length of a spring. He then
attaches different loads to the spring. He measures the
length of the spring for each load. The table below shows
his results.
a) Plot the load–extension graph.
b) Deduce the relationship between force and extension based
on the graph.
c) The student attaches a load of unknown weight to the spring
and measures the length of the spring. The length is found
to be 21.0 cm. What is the weight of this load?
Example 4
a) Drawn below
b) The extension is directly proportional to load, since the
line has constant slope and starts at the origin.
c) From the graph, the extension of the spring is 21 – 16
or 5 cm, so we draw a line at 5.0 cm and see where it
intersects on the y-axis, i.e. 2.5 N
Example 4
Ex 5. The figure below is the extension–load graph for
a light spring S.
a) State the range of loads for which S obeys Hooke’s law.
b) Using information from the figure, determine the spring
constant k of spring S.
Ex 5
c) A second spring, identical to spring S, is attached to
spring S. The two springs are attached to a rod, as
shown below. A load of 4.0 N is suspended from the
bottom of spring S. The arrangement is in equilibrium.
Determine the extension of the arrangement.
Example 5
a) 0 N to 8 N
b) k = 1/slope or x / y
k = 8.0 / 0.15 = 53 N / m
c) For a single spring the extension is:
x=F/k
x = 4 / 53 = 0.075 m,
Since there are two springs the extension will be
doubled, so x = 0.15 m
Example 5
Q1. Find the force constant of a spring that is stretched:
◦ 2 mm by a force of 4 N?
◦ 4 cm by a mass of 200 g?
Q2. The unloaded length of a spring is 15.0 cm, when an

object of unknown weight is hung on the spring, the length
of the spring is 16.4 cm. What is the weight of the object if
k = 250 N/m?
Q3. The spring shown, stretches from 10 to 22 cm when a

force of 4 N is applied. If it obeys Hooke’s law, its total
length in cm when a force of 6 N is applied is:
a. 16 cm c. 26 cm
b. 18 cm d. 28 cm
Homework
Q4. The extension / load graph for a spring is shown. The
unstretched length of the spring is 15.0 cm.
When an object of unknown weight is suspended on the
spring, the length of the spring is 16.4 cm.
What is the weight of the object?
a) 0.55 N
b) 0.67 N
c) 3.5 N
d) 4.1 N
Hw
Q5. The table below shows the readings taken in a
spring stretching experiment.
a. Complete the table and plot an extension-load graph
b. Mark the elastic limit on your graph
c. Over which section is the extension proportional to
load?
d. What load would produce a 35 mm extension?
e. What load would stretch the spring to 65 mm and what
load would extend it to 65 mm?
Load /N 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Length/ mm 40 49 58 67 76 88 110
Extension /mm
Homework
Q6. A student measured the length of a spring which was
found to be 25.0 cm. She then attached an 8 N weight to
the spring. She measured the new length, which was
found to be 29.0 cm.
a) Calculate the extension of the spring.
b) The student decided to plot a load–extension graph for
the spring. She repeated the step above to obtain the
extension of the spring for the following weights: 2 N,
4 N, 6 N and 10 N. Sketch a graph to show what her
load–extension graph would look like.
c) Calculate the spring constant of the spring.
Homework
d) Using your answer in (c), calculate the extension of
the spring when the load is 14 N.
e) The student decided to increase the weight on the

spring up to 14 N. The table below shows her results.
i. Use the table to plot the load–extension graph.
ii. Explain why the extension of the spring for F = 14 N was
different from the calculated value in (d).
F/N 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 13 14
x/cm 0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0
Homework

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3.

Remember that we will use the student-led teaching

 If you stretch or bend Plasticine, it keeps its new

Elastic and plastic

 As the load is increased , the spring stretches more.

 Its extension is the difference between its stretched

Up to the point E: load

 When stretching load is on the y-axis , the gradient is k

 In stretched spring-load graph, the graph will not start

 Spring constant: is the force needed to cause unit

 Aa: k = F /x = 2.0 N / 0.01 m ≈ 200 N/m

The gradient of the load-extension graph at any point

Q2. The unloaded length of a spring is 15.0 cm, when an

Q3. The spring shown, stretches from 10 to 22 cm when a

e) The student decided to increase the weight on the

x/cm 0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0

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