Work and Spring Relationship

Purpose: The purpose of the lab was to see whether we could prove that the conservation of energy theorem applies to a spring oscillating.

Procedure: In order to see whether energy is conserved we have to find the spring constant of the spring first. In order to do that we have to measure the unstretched position of the spring and then the stretched position of the spring. Then we will let the spring oscillate for about 10 seconds. There is a motion sensor at the bottom of the spring in order to capture the movement of the spring. This will allow us to get the position and velocity which we need for the kinetic and potential energies of the spring and mass. Then we will compare results and come to see whether energy is truly conserved.

Below is what the experiment set up looked like. There was a force sensor attached to the top of the spring in order for the spring to oscillate more efficiently. The notecard was attached to the bottom so that the motion sensor could get a better reading.

Data: The data we needed was captured by Logger Pro which included the position and velocity.

The data table below shows the different types of energies needed to prove that energy is conserved within the spring system. The energy columns are all calculated columns based off of the data gathered.

The graph below is that of the position vs time and velocity vs time. The graphs represent simple harmonic motion because it is a spring oscillating.

Below is the final graph of the energies. The graphs are not completely showing that the energy of the system was conserved. There must have been something wrong with our data because total energy (purple) should have been in a straight line.

Calculations: The calculations were all done in class with the professor. It shows how we came to know what data to acquire and how to solve the functions for each of the energies.

Summary: Overall the lab was not successful because we did not conserve energy within our graphs. This may have been because we did not get the spring constant k correctly. I had a little bit of difficulty knowing how to get it as well as my partner. Otherwise, the rest of the lab was successful because the energies were not exact but they were really close.