Question

Janet wants to find the spring constant of a given spring, so she hangs the spring vertically and attaches a 0.63 kg mass to the spring's other end. if the spring stretches 2.8 cm from its equilibrium position, what is the spring constant?

Answer 1

The spring constant F = kx. But The mass acting on the spring is given by F = mg. So we have F = mg = kx. So k = mg/x where m = 0.63kg and g = 9.81N and x = 2.8 cm = 0.028m. Then we have k = (0.63 * 9.81)/0.028 = 220.725N