Experimenting with Inexpensive

Plastic Springs
Leander Perez, Adriana Marques, and Iván Sánchez, Laboratorio de Física Estadística de Sistemas Desordenados, Centro de
Física, IVIC, Caracas, Venezuela

A
common undergraduate laboratory experience is Table I. Geometrical parameters of all springs used for the pres-
the determination of the elastic constant of a spring, ent study. (Length L = 25.0  0.1 cm)
whether studying the elongation under a static load Spring Spring Distance Wire diameter,
or studying the damped harmonic motion of the spring with diameter, D between d
a suspended mass. An alternative approach to this labora-  0.05 (mm) consecutive  0.05 (mm)
tory experience has been suggested by Menezes et al.,1 aimed coils, h
at studying the dependence of the elastic constant with the  0.05 (mm)
length of the spring. The proposal by Menezes et al.1 consists A1 12.95 4.50 1.65
of determining the spring’s elastic constant K (defined as the A2 12.80 4.70 1.65
ratio of the elongation δ and the magnitude of applied force A3 12.85 4.50 1.65
F) using the usual method of suspending a mass m and study- A4 12.60 4.35 1.65
ing the dependence of K on the spring’s unstretched length L.
A5 13.20 5.20 1.60
The authors vary the length of a spring by cutting pieces off
A6 12.75 4.45 1.60
the end and obtain an experimental relation K = αL−1, with α
B1 14.50 4.50 1.60
a constant depending on the spring materials and geometri-
cal factors. In our teaching practice we have been using the C1 18.75 4.80 1.80
experience in Ref. 1 as an opportunity for advanced students C2 18.80 5.00 1.80
to earn extra credit after the ordinary laboratory experi- C3 18.80 4.75 1.70
ence. The results we have obtained so far confirm the work C4 18.80 4.50 1.85
of Menezes et al.1 and inevitably motivate a discussion on the C5 19.00 4.70 1.75
dependence of the elastic constant K with some other spring
C6 18.60 4.35 1.90
parameters. The present work originates from the quest of a
D1 21.50 4.15 1.85
couple of students to determine the role of the spring coil di-
D2 22.35 3.45 1.85
ameter D on the value of K and α.
D3 21.45 4.55 1.85
Experimental details D4 21.35 3.35 1.85
In order to assure the viability of the experiment it was D5 21.60 3.65 1.85
mandatory to keep the budget to a minimum. We used plastic D6 21.45 3.30 1.90
helical springs of the kind used for notebook spiral binding. E1 22.80 3.95 2.40
A set of springs (spiral binding coil) of different diameters was E2 22.60 4.15 2.20
purchased from a local office supplies retailer for ≈ $25 USD.
E3 22.80 4.70 2.30
A simple geometrical characterization was performed, using
E4 22.70 4.50 2.20
a caliper to determine the spring unstretched length L, coil
diameter D, separation between coils h, and wire diameter d E5 22.80 4.05 2.20
(see the inset of Fig. 1 for an illustration of the definition of D E6 22.95 4.20 2.45
and d). Results are listed in Table I. Some springs had small F1 26.00 3.85 2.00
permanent bends (compromising the local elastic response of F2 26.00 3.85 1.95
the material); therefore, those springs were rejected. After the F3 26.00 3.20 2.00
initial selection and characterization, special care was devoted F4 25.60 3.00 2.05
to cut the excess material in order to have all springs with a
F5 25.75 3.75 2.05
common L = (25.0 ± 0.1) cm. Springs were grouped into seven
F6 25.75 3.55 2.10
categories (named with capital letters from A to G in Table
I), each category having six springs with the same size within G1 29.50 3.45 2.60
the experimental uncertainty, except category B, for which we G2 29.55 3.50 2.60
could only use one spring after the initial selection (further G3 29.45 3.55 2.65
attempts to purchase additional springs of this size were un- G4 29.45 3.50 2.60
successful since the additional packages had not even a single G5 29.50 3.75 2.65
spring without significant bends). G6 29.45 3.70 2.60

DOI: 10.1119/1.4872407 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 52, May 2014 281
Fig. 1. Results of Experiment #1 showing the empirical functional
relation obtained between the elastic constant K and the spring
coil diameter D. The straight line is a linear least-squares fit to the
experimental data.
Fig. 2. Results of Experiment #2 showing linear relation between
the elastic constant K and the inverse of the spring length L,
obtained with the same procedure as in Ref. 1. Straight lines
are linear least-squares fits to the experimental data. The slope
increases with decreasing coil diameter D.

A first experiment (henceforth referred to as Experiment

#1) was performed to determine the dependence of K with D
with the condition of having L fixed. For each spring, a set of
six known masses was used to generate plots of the elongation
δ as a function of the weight mg (with g = 9.81 m/s2, the accel-
eration due to gravity). The value of K was obtained from the
inverse of the slope of linear fits to those plots.
A second experiment (henceforth referred to as Exper-
iment #2) was performed to determine the dependence of
the constant α on the internal coil diameter D. A single value
of α was determined for each spring in each category. For
each spring, the constant α was obtained using the proposal
by Menezes et al.1: single measurements of the elongation δ
under a static load mg were performed for different spring
lengths, starting from the initial L and cutting pieces from
the springs in order to test shorter lengths. From those mea- Fig. 3. Results of Experiment #3 showing the empirical functional
surements, the elastic constant K was measured as a function relation obtained between the constant a and the spring coil
of the spring’s length L. The constant α was obtained directly diameter D. The straight line is a linear least-squares fit to the
from the slope of plots of K as a function of L−1. experimental data.

Results and discussion

An important source of information is a professional
handbook. If we look into a mechanical engineering hand-
book,2 we find the following information regarding compres-
sion helical springs:
(1)
where G is the modulus of rigidity of the material (also called
shear modulus), C is called the spring index and it’s equal to
the ratio between the coil diameter D and the diameter of the
wire d, and N is the number of active coils. A formal deriva-
tion of the latter expression can be found in Refs. 3 and 4. The
number of coils is directly proportional to the length of the
spring. Therefore, we can assume the following scaling will
hold:
.
(2)
According to Eq. (2), we plot the results of Experiment #1
in Fig. 1. Each point on the plot was obtained using the aver-
age values of K, d, and D over each series of springs. The error
bars show the propagated uncertainties of the quantities
K d−4 and D−3, obtained using the partial derivatives method
(see, for example, Eq. 3.48 in Ref. 5 ), and using the quadratic
sum of the standard deviation of the mean and the estimation
error to compute the error of the average values of K, d, and
D (see the final part of section 4.6 in Ref. 5 for a discussion on
reporting the uncertainty of average values). On the vertical
axis we plot K d−4 instead of just K because there was a small
variation in the value of d between different groups of springs
(with the same D). During Experiment #1 all springs had the

282 The Physics Teacher ◆ Vol. 52, May 2014

same length L; thus, Eq. (2) suggests the relation K d−4 D−3,
precisely what is observed in Fig. 1. A linear least-square fit
line is added having a square correlation coefficient r2 = 0.99.
The results of Experiment #2 are shown in Figs. 2 and 3. In
Fig. 2 we show some plots of the elastic constant K as a func-
tion of L−1 for three different springs. We can appreciate the
linear dependence of K with L−1 as well as the fact that the
slope α changes with the type of spring. Those results con-
firm the observations of the Ref. 1 authors, who observed a
relation K = αL−1. According to Eq. (2), the constant α would
scale with D as follows:
demic Press, New York, 2001).
3. J. Shigley, C. Mischke, and R. Budynas, Mechanical Engi-
neering Design, McGraw-Hill series in mechanical engineering
(McGraw-Hill Higher Education, 2004).
4. A. Sommerfeld, Mechanics of Deformable Bodies (Lectures on
Theoretical Physics, Vol. 2) , (Sarat Book House, 1959).
5. J. R. Taylor, An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of
Uncertainties in Physical Measurements (University Science
Books, 1997).
Leander Perez, Adriana Marques, and Iván Sánchez, Laboratorio de
Física Estadística de Sistemas Desordenados, Centro de Física, IVIC,
Caracas, Venezula; ivanjo@gmail.com

(3)

According to Eq. (3), we plot the results of Experiment

#2 in Fig. 3. Each point on the plot was obtained using the
average values of α, d, and D over each series of springs. The
error bars show the propagated uncertainties of the quantities
Concerned about
αd−4 and D−3, obtained using the partial derivatives method,
the safety of your students?
and using the quadratic sum of the standard deviation of the Be
mean and the estimation error to obtain the error of the aver- Sellest
r!
age values of α, d, and D. On the vertical axis we plot αd−4
instead of just α to consider the variation of d among differ-
ent spring categories. A linear least-square fit line is added
having a square correlation coefficient r2 = 0.98.
It is important to note that, although Figs. 1 and 3 verify
the same scaling 1/D3, the data used for each image were
obtained in different ways. Figure 1 is more restricted in the
sense that all springs used had the same length. Figure 3 in-
cludes data for springs of several lengths. As we can see from
the results of Experiments #1 and #2, there is a rather small
degree of deviation from the scaling suggested by Eq. (2). An
interesting experience for future work could include in the
analysis the set of rejected springs, so as to study the effect of
deformations on deviations from the suggested scaling.
Promote safety awareness and encourage safe
Closing remarks habits with this essential manual. Appropriate
We have presented an experimental exploration to test for elementary to advanced undergraduate labo-
the dependence of the elastic constant of helical compression ratories.
plastic springs with the spring coil diameter. We have also Members $12.99 • Nonmembers $18.99
showed results analogous to a previous study,1 where the elas- order online: www.aapt.org/store or call: 301-209-3333
tic constant is proportional to the inverse of the spring length.
We also studied the scaling of the proportionality constant
with the coil diameter. Our results show good agreement with
the theoretical expressions obtained from continuum me-
chanics. The experience is well suited for extra credit activi-
ties or as the main part of a short summer internship for first-
year college students. We acknowledge the help of Dr. Luis
González, who kindly agreed to review the manuscript.

References
1. F. M. De Souza Lima, G. M. Venceslau and E. dos Reis Nunes,
“A new Hooke’s law experiment,” Phys. Teach. 40, 35–36 (Jan.
2002).
2. D. B. Marghitu (ed.), Mechanical Engineer’s Handbook (Aca-

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