Stretching a spring

The stretching of a spring using 100g masses is a classic experimental demonstration of Hooke's law. This video features a close up of the experiment showing the stretching of a metal spring to a point beyond its elastic limit. The video allows measurements to be taken, from which the extension may be calculated and a graph plotted.

The main features of the video are:

• • Hooke's law

  • The spring constant

  • The elastic limit of a spring

  • Elastic and plastic behaviour.