The same law applies to other elastic materials, like rubber and many others. Even a metal rod presents elastic behaviour, but only for small distortions.

 

To calculate the force in newtons, the distance must be in meters. If you are given a distance in cm you must convert it to meters first.

 

 

 

Many other physical laws are also described by a simple relationship, like F= kx.

For instance U= RI (Ohm's Law) ,

v = a t (relates velocity, acceleration and time )

and many others.

The behaviour of the systems which obey these laws can also be represented by a straight line, whose slope will reveal important information. But watch out: you won't always get a straight line! For instance, radioactive decay is pictured by a curve called exponential.

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Mechanics

Mass and weight

Uniform movement

Accelerated movement

Work / energy

Kinetic energy

Power

Momentum

Collisions

Force

Pressure and force

Elastic force (Hooke's Law)

Projectile motion

 

Some devices that obey Hooke's Law:

 

 

 

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Hooke's Law

Hooke's Law simulations:

(a damping effect is present to simulate the disspation of energy caused by friction)

Spring with k= 0.15

 

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Spring with k= 0.03

(a "weaker" spring)

 

Robert Hooke , born at the Isle of Wight , discovered (in 1676) that when you apply a force on a spring, the force you apply is directly proportional to how far it stretches .

You can represent this variation by a straight line, due to the direct proportionality.

The slope of the graph (example below) will be proportional to the spring constant k : if the spring is tough, the slope will be large and the resulting line will be close to the y axis (vertical). That means that even a small displacement of the spring will require a large force.

if the spring is "soft" the slope will be small; the resulting line will be close to the x axis(horizontal).

The elastic Potential energy stored in a spring which is either compressed or stretched, is:

E =

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Demonstration of Hooke's Law for a spring with k=1.