Hooke's law – springs

PhysicsForces & DynamicsAges 15–16

Three screens to explore Hooke's law. Intro lets you stretch or compress one or two independent horizontal springs and read the applied force, spring constant and extension along with the spring force vector; Systems combines springs in series or in parallel to compare the effective spring constant; Energy plots force against extension, where the triangle area shows the elastic potential energy ½·k·Δl². Students drag the end of the spring directly or use the force and spring constant sliders, and the values update in real time. Adapted from the "Hooke's Law" simulation by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder (CC BY 4.0); rewritten.

Lesson: Deformation of solids, Hooke's law