Even if you've never played with a spring before, you've definitely used something that has a spring inside: a mattress, a watch, a retractable pen, a scale, or maybe a door that closes on its own. All of these things rely on a spring force to function.

The spring force is pretty simple: if you pull the ends of a spring apart the spring gets longer, and if you push the ends of a spring together the spring gets shorter. And we know from Newton's 3rd law that if you pull or push a spring, the spring pulls or pushes you back with the same force.

In this lesson we'll cover Hooke's law which relates the spring force and the amount that the spring changes length, which depends on the spring constant (which describes the stiffness of the spring). We're only going to work with what we call "ideal springs", which means the spring force varies linearly with the change in length.

We'll also learn about combining springs in series and in parallel to get an "equivalent spring constant".

Finally, we'll learn how this spring-like behavior applies to the elasticity of materials. A rubber band is one example, but it turns out that everything stretches when you apply a force to it - every material actually behaves like a spring.

Multiple-Choice Questions

Answers

Free-Response Questions

Springs

• 2024 Q2 - - (Experimental design) Masses oscillating on a spring, simple harmonic motion, energy, momentum
• 2024 Q4 - - Pendulum on different planets, law of gravitation, simple harmonic motion, work, spring force
• 2023 Q1 - - Cart oscillating on horizontal spring, simple harmonic motion, energy, work
• 2023 Q3 - - Block and spring rotating about axle, circular motion, centripetal force, FBDs
• 2022 Q1 - - Pulley system with 2 blocks and a spring, kinematics, forces, energy, work
• 2022 Q5 - - Mass oscillating on a vertical spring, simple harmonic motion, energy, work
• 2019 Q3 - - (Experimental design) Sphere is launched with a spring plunger, projectile motion, energy
• 2015 Q3 - - Block-spring system sliding on surface, energy, work, friction

- Spring Force

• Flipping Physics - Hooke's Law Introduction - Force of a Spring
• Matt Anderson - Horizontal vs vertical springs
• Equivalent Springs in Series and Parallel

- Elasticity of Materials

• Khan Academy - Elastic and non elastic materials
• Organic Chemistry Tutor - Elasticity & Hooke's Law

• Michel van Biezen - Spring and Weight
• Matt Anderson - How to determine the spring constant
• Organic Chemistry Tutor - Stress and Strain - Elastic Modulus

• The Efficient Engineer - Understanding Young's Modulus

Even if you've never played with a spring before, you've definitely used something that has a spring inside: a mattress, a watch, a retractable pen, a scale, or maybe a door that closes on its own. All of these things rely on a spring force to function.

The spring force is pretty simple: if you pull the ends of a spring apart the spring gets longer, and if you push the ends of a spring together the spring gets shorter. And we know from Newton's 3rd law that if you pull or push a spring, the spring pulls or pushes you back with the same force.

In this lesson we'll cover Hooke's law which relates the spring force and the amount that the spring changes length, which depends on the spring constant (which describes the stiffness of the spring). We're only going to work with what we call "ideal springs", which means the spring force varies linearly with the change in length.

We'll also learn about combining springs in series and in parallel to get an "equivalent spring constant".

Finally, we'll learn how this spring-like behavior applies to the elasticity of materials. A rubber band is one example, but it turns out that everything stretches when you apply a force to it - every material actually behaves like a spring.

Multiple-Choice Questions