Hooke’s Law – Hanging Masses Simulation
Description
This Hooke’s law simulation is a hands-on virtual lab for students meeting elasticity and springs for the first time. It reproduces the real load-and-measure experiment rather than a slider on a screen: you mount a spring on the stand, hang slotted masses on it, and read the spring’s length off a fixed ruler. The spring constant is never displayed, so the value of k has to be measured, not read off.
Components
The simulation includes:
- A rack of five springs, labelled A to E, each with a different stiffness and its own elastic limit
- A set of slotted masses: a 10 g hanger, two 20 g, two 50 g and one 100 g piece, hung one at a time
- A fixed 20 cm ruler with its zero at the upper end of the spring, so the reading is the spring’s total length
- A magnifier that follows the spring’s pointer and enlarges the millimeter divisions
- Permanent deformation past the elastic limit, which locks the apparatus until the spring is replaced
- A step-by-step guided tutorial that can be opened at any point without disturbing the current setup
How the experiment works
The 10 g hanger goes on first, because the other masses stack on it, exactly as at the bench. For every load the student records the spring’s total length, subtracts the no-load reading to obtain the extension, and converts the hanging mass into the force pulling on the spring. Plotting force against extension gives a straight line whose gradient is the spring constant. Three of the five springs give readings that land exactly on a millimeter division; the other two do not, so the same law has to be found through less convenient arithmetic.
Learning Outcomes
Students measure extension, calculate tension from a hanging mass, and deduce for themselves that force is proportional to extension within the elastic limit. They also meet the limit of the law directly: overload a spring and it stays permanently deformed. Suitable for intermediate physics classes and for elasticity units taught in a virtual lab setting, and aligned with the Grade 9 load-and-measure lab sheet.