An object such as a metal coil or air-filled tube which provides a force opposing the direction of deformation.
Questions tagged [spring]
1413 questions
43
votes
5 answers
Slinky base does not immediately fall due to gravity
Why does the base of this slinky not fall immediately to gravity? My guess is tension in the springs is a force > mass*gravity but even then it is dumbfounding.
Smoke Trees
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40
votes
6 answers
Is the spring constant $k$ changed when you divide a spring into parts?
I've always been taught that the spring constant $k$ is a constant — that is, for a given spring, $k$ will always be the same, regardless of what you do to the spring.
My friend's physics professor gave a practice problem in which a spring of…
nhinkle
- 734
32
votes
5 answers
Why does my bumper scrape when driving fast over a bump but not slow?
When driving my car over a bump or a quick change in gradient (from flat to uphill or downhill to flat), if I don't drive slowly and the bump/change in gradient is large enough, I'll end up with my front bumper dragging on the road/bump. But if I go…
scohe001
- 447
30
votes
3 answers
Stretch length of horizontal and vertical springs
If the spring in Figure A is stretched a distance d, how far will the spring in Figure B stretch? The spring constants are the same.
The answer is "by half". I don't get it, to me it's the same.
Mörre
- 497
29
votes
2 answers
Why do my experimental data for Hooke’s law not match the expected data?
As we all know, force applied to a spring is directly proportional to the extension of spring as shown below:
However, my experimental results for a simple spring from a school laboratory don't match this behaviour:
Why is this happening? I don't…
anon
27
votes
1 answer
Why don't they use springs as an energy source for cell phones?
I know they used springs for clocks way back in the day and now it's all lithium ion batteries.
For reference, consider the Iphone that has a battery with a capacity of 5 Watt hours (18,000 joules).
For portable energy sources, fuel cells have been…
Klik
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26
votes
8 answers
Why is the potential energy of a spring the same when it is compressed and stretched?
I'm giving a high school lecture and I want to introduce the potential energy of a spring. My students have not learned the Hooke's Law and the notion of integral is too advanced. I'm really trying to justify with a hand waving argument that the…
PinkFloyd
- 474
24
votes
4 answers
Why does a ball bounce lower?
If a ball hits the floor after an acceleration then why does it bounces lower? I mean the Energy is passed to the floor then why does the floor give back less Energy?
PunkZebra
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22
votes
1 answer
Why does a flat sheet roll back into a cylinder when having rolled it once?
For example, if you were to roll a piece of paper into the shape of a hollow cylinder and then try to return the paper to its original, flat shape, it would naturally roll to the cylinder when you let go. Why would an originally flat surface, when…
20
votes
3 answers
Is there a deep reason why springs combine like capacitors?
I was solving a practice Physics GRE and there was a question about springs connected in series and parallel. I was too lazy to derive the way the spring constants add in each case. But I knew how capacitances and resistances add when they are…
user34801
- 729
19
votes
5 answers
How is potential energy actually stored in a steel spring at the atomic level?
Elasticity is one the most intriguing phenomena, wiki gives a summary explanation of what happens in a steel spring:
the atomic lattice changes size and shape when forces are applied
(energy is added to the system). When forces are removed, the…
bobie
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18
votes
2 answers
Can Hooke's law be derived?
Can we derive Hooke's law from the theory of elasticity? I know it is not a fundamental law and therefore can be derived from more basic considerations.
Solidification
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17
votes
4 answers
Will slinky length be different on the moon?
If we hold one end of a slinky and leave other end free, the earth's gravity applies force on the slinky and it expands. If we do the same on the moon with the same slinky, will the acquired height of the slinky be different?
Tarun Mishra
- 331
15
votes
5 answers
Why are springs better at pulling than pushing?
We learnt that a spring stores and releases energy in either direction from the resting position when extended by some distance. When I tried doing this is real life by creating a very low friction surface and a spring and a mass, I noticed that the…
Ashwin Alagiri-rajan
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14
votes
4 answers
When an electron hits a fluorescent screen mounted on a spring, why can't we get both position and momentum?
From the Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle for position and momentum we know that, $x$ and $p$ of a particle cannot be measured simultaneously with arbitrary accuracy.
$$\Delta x \Delta p \geq \hbar/2 $$
How does the uncertainty principle work in…
Lost
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