To determine the form of Hooke's Law obeyed by a spring. Background Automobile suspensions, playground toys and even retractable ball-point pens employ springs.
Most springs have an easily predicted behavior when a force is applied.
Consequently, the force that a spring applies to a body, as the spring is extended or compressed, can be mathematically determined. This type of relationship can be described by a number of mathematical relationships. In this lab, you will see which one describes the springs we are using. He examined central forces that were inversely proportional to the distance between two objects. This linear relationship does not hold true in light of our present knowledge of planetary gravitation, but works well for springs.