Video Physics (for mobile devices) – Finding a Spring Constant

In this activity students use a “movie” consisting of still photos of a spring with different masses hanging from it to verify Hooke’s Law and determine the spring’s constant, k. This activity gives students an opportunity to make careful use of a conventional coordinate system where “up” and “toward the right” are positive and “down” and “toward the left” are negative. They then consider the circumstances under which each of the variables, Fy and y, needed to determine k, are positive or negative. Students can practice obtaining data for the ISE LoggerPro/LoggerLite analysis tool. This includes (1) manual data entry, (2) video data collection using Set Scale and Add Point features, and (3) creating calculated data using the New Calculated Column feature. Finally students are asked to use the Model feature of the ISE LoggerPro/LoggerLite analysis tool to find a mathematical model that relates Fy to y.