What quantity did you change?
Labs / Physics
Springs (SHM)
Grab the block, pull it up or down, and let go. It bounces in simple harmonic motion while the coil stretches and squeezes, and the graph at the bottom draws its position over time. Change the spring stiffness and the mass to reshape the motion.
Labs / Physics / Springs (SHM)
Springs (SHM)
Grab the block, pull it up or down, and let go. It bounces in simple harmonic motion while the coil stretches and squeezes, and the graph at the bottom draws its position over time. Change the spring stiffness and the mass to reshape the motion.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Physics explains how changes in forces, energy, motion, and matter produce results we can measure. This model lets you test one part of that relationship at a time.
Explore
Try the model
x 18.0 cmT ≈ 1.81 s
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Stiffen the spring without touching the mass. Does each bounce take more time or less?
- Pile on more mass. Why does a heavier block bob more slowly, even on the same spring?
- Release the block from a big pull, then a tiny one. Does the amount you stretch it change the period at all?
- Turn on damping. What shape does the position graph settle into as the bounces fade?
- Can you find a stiffness and mass that give exactly a one-second period? What does T = 2π√(m/k) predict?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Name the quantity you changed, the quantity that responded, and the physical rule connecting them. Use a readout or visible change as evidence.
Check
Before you leave
What measurable result changed?
Which physical idea connects them?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.