Question

Gabby puts a 5.8 kg weight on a spring and it stretches 1.4 m. What is the spring constant of the spring? (Remember kg is not a force it is a mass) (F = Kx)

Answer 1

Answer:

40.6 N/m

Explanation:

From Hooke's law we relate the extension of a spring and the applied force by the formula F=kx where F is the applied force, k is spring constant and x is extension of spring.

Making k the subject of the formula then we have

$k=\frac {F}{x}$

We also know that F=gm where g is acceleration due to gravity which we take as 9.81 m/s2 while m is the mass. Substituting F with gm into the formula we get that

$k=\frac {gm}{x}$

Substituting m for 5.8 kg and x for 1.4 m we get the spring conatant as

$k=\frac {9.81\times 5.8}{1.4}=40.641428571428\ N/m\approx 40.6\ N/m$

Therefore, the spring constant is approximately 40.6 N/m