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	Hooke's Law: The Rest of the Story

Activity Overview

Students study Hooke's Law. They explore the linear behavior of a spring as it is pulled downward and understand that stretch on a spring is directly proportional to the force applied to the end of the string. Students create scatter plots, calculate slopes, and discuss positive and negative slopes.

Before the Activity

Use TI Connect™ to download Vernier EasyData™ application

Connect the calculator to the CBR™

Place the meter stick on the back of two chairs, and hang the spring from the stick

Record the height at which the stick is placed

Hang the cup from the spring, and position the CBR under the cup

See the attached PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity

Print pages 59 - 70 from the attached PDF file for the class

Set up the calculator for data collection

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During the Activity

Distribute the pages to the class.

Follow the Activity procedures:

Record the distance from the stick to the floor

Use the CBR, record the distance from the cup to the floor as the cup is filled with candy (use the data collected in Activity 7: Hooke's Law)

Calculate the distance from the stick to the bottom of the cup as candies are added

Set up a scatter plot for this distance from the meter stick to the bottom of the container vs. number of candies

Graph the data points and trace the plot

Calculate the difference in the distance between two trials, divide this value by 3, and find the average of these values to determine the slope

Use the slope and the Y-intercept value to find the regression equation to fit the data

Compare this equation with the one found for the scatter plot of the distance from the bottom of the cup to the floor in the activity 7

View the plot of distance from the cup to the floor versus number of candies and distance from the stick to the bottom of the cup versus number of candies, on the same screen

Understand slopes of both plots deal with a change in distance dependent upon a change in the number of candies

Positive slope indicates the distance from the stick increases as the number of candies increases and negative slope indicates the distance of the cup to the floor decreases as the number of candies increases

Point of intersection of the two lines is where the cup is equidistant from the stick and the floor

After the Activity

Students analyze the results and answer the case analysis questions on the student worksheet.

Review student results

As a class, discuss questions that appeared to be more challenging

Re-teach concepts as necessary

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