Consider the following pictures AL-HOCEIMA EARTHQUAKE 24 /02 /2004

Consider the following pictures

Hooke’s Law.

Robert Hooke Researched and wrote papers on Geometry, Snowflakes, Heat, Astronomy, Fossils, Air Pumps, Light, Watches, Telescopes and Silkworms…..among other things. Hooke’s Law was one of the few things he was popularly credited with creating. A rather crabby individual but credited with also inventing the universal joints, the balance wheel and the iris diaphragm

What did Hooke discover about forces ? the more force that was put on materials the more they extended With some materials they also extended in a regular way e.g.- if the force was doubled so did the extension this was true as long as their elastic limit was not exceeded

Lets try an activity Read the instructions on lab sheet provided. Arrange apparatus and perform experiments. Analyse and present data

What did the experiment show?

What the graph shows

What is the elastic limit? The material no longer shows elastic behaviour (i.e. does not return to original size when stretching force is removed) The material is permanently deformed i.e. is larger or longer than originally The material is weaker as the above effects are caused by fracture of some atomic bonds

Hence in general, the Force is proportional to extension. So Hooke’s Law could be put as Or if k is the proportionality constant F=kx Where F is the applied force in Newtons x is the extension in metres

What does k mean in F=kx? k is called the spring constant and is a measure of the stiffness of the spring or material It has units of Nm -1 (newtons per metre) The higher the k the stiffer the spring Materials with a high k need a large force to for a given extension adding springs in series or parallel changes k

Series and parallel springs Series k decreases by 2 Combined springs slacken compared with single spring extension doubles Parallel k increases by 2 Combined springs stiffen compared with single spring extension halves

So how does this help me? Understanding Hooke’s law is critical to the construction of any structure eg bridges or buildings. During earthquakes deformations of buildings occur.

Hooke’s law explains how a material’s extension/deformation depends on the applied force. Deformation of materials though in practice is looked at in terms of stress ( the force per square metre) and strain (the extension per unit length) are more commonly used instead of simply force and extension Summary