7-Oct-2014: Spring Energy

Purpose:
The purpose of this lab is for students to experience with the spring energy, and to discover how the energy is transferred from potential to kinetic and vise-versa.
Apparatus:
We calibrated the force sensor and set it up on a stand facing down. We hung a spring on the force sensor with weights hanging on the spring. We set the motion detector at the bottom of everything to measure the distance the spring moves. After the set up was complete, we zeroed every measurement on the Logger Pro.

Explanation:

With the apparatus set up, I pulled the mass down, which stretched the spring, until the mass was right above the motion detector. I released the mass once Logger Pro was ready and it recorded the force and distance it traveled. Using the velocity and mass, we found the kinetic energy of the system. Using the mass, gravity and position, we found the potential energy of the system. Using the potential energy we found previously, we set the potential energy equal to the elastic potential energy, giving us k constant to be 16.68. The distance for the potential energy was the distance traveled plus the height of the spring unstretched. On the other hand, the distance for the elastic potential energy was the distance unstretched minus the distance read by Logger Pro. The distance unstretched was found by finding equilibrium height, 0.625m, subtracting the distance distance from the equilibrium to the unstetched, 0.294m. The distance unstretched for the elastic potential energy is 0.331m, and the distance unstreched for the potential energy was the position read by Logger Pro plus 0.75m. Using the mass of the spring, 0.045 kg, and the velocity, we found the kinetic energy of the spring; and with the distance traveled by the mass, we found the potential energy of the spring. When the potential energy of the spring reaches it's max, the kinetic energy of the spring will reach a value of zero. When the potential energy of the spring reaches a value of zero, the kinetic energy should reach it's max. Adding both the potential energy of the spring and the kinetic energy of the spring, we should get a small range of numbers, which we called total energy. When we graph the total energy, the plot was close to a straight line.

The instructions of the lab.

Finding the change of position from equilibrium

All calculations are done on Logger Pro.

Conclusion:

With the spring pulled away from equilibrium position, we found that the energy throughout the spring transfers from kinetic energy to potential energy and back to kinetic energy and so forth. With the mass attached to the end of the spring, we find that the spring had more energy and traveled more further from equilibrium point. Adding all the energy together, we find that the total energy was close to constant, which means that the energy was close to conserved. The reason why the energy was not so conserved was because the gravity pulling the hanging mass and the mass of the spring is another constant energy.