Spring potential energy and power

Compress or stretch a spring: work done is the area under the F–x line, U = ½kx². Release a block from a compressed spring on a rough track and measure the launch speed; see power delivered by a motor lifting a load.

About this experiment

What you do in the lab

Change the controls and watch the physics behave in real time in 3D. Live readouts and graphs show the numbers behind it, and the Learn tab has the theory, procedure, observations and viva questions. Works on a phone or a laptop, in English and Hindi.

Topics: spring · potential energy · Hooke's law · work by variable force · power

More from this chapter

• Ballistic pendulum: bullet speed from the swing
• Elastic and inelastic collisions in 1D and 2D
• Newton's cradle: elastic collisions in a chain
• Power of an engine: P = Fv, top speed and acceleration
• Motion in a vertical circle (death-well / loop-the-loop)
• Work-energy theorem on a rough track