Masses and springs lab – oscillation and energy

PhysicsOscillations & WavesAges 16–17

Hang objects on a vertical spring and watch them oscillate across four screens: Intro, Vectors, Energy and Lab. Students change the spring constant, mass, damping and gravity (Earth/Moon/Jupiter/Planet X); measure the equilibrium extension and the period with a ruler and a virtual stopwatch; follow the velocity, acceleration, spring force and weight vectors and a bar chart of kinetic, potential and thermal energy; and use springs of known spring constant to find the mass of mystery objects. Adapted from the "Masses and Springs" simulation by PhET Interactive Simulations, University of Colorado Boulder (CC BY 4.0); rewritten.

Lesson: Energy in simple harmonic motion