Hooke's Law

Hooke's Law (Horizontal)

Below is a simulation of Hooke's Law or the Spring Force in a 2D plane in the horizontal direction. In the simulation, you can input the mass of the object on the spring, the spring constant, and damping coefficient. The simulation also has a built in stop-watch timer which you can use to verify Hooke's Law. When you start the simulation, you can stretch the bob to whatever distance you like and when released, the bob on the string will start to oscillate back and forth, until it reaches its original position of equilibrium.

Mass:
Spring Constant:
Damping:

Hooke's Law which is also know as the law of elasticity, states that for relatvively small deformations on an object, the displacement of the deformation is directly proportional to the deforming force.

This force is known as the spring force, and is defined as F_s = - kx.

\[ F_s = -kx \]

k is the spring constant which when graphed is linearly proprotional to the amount of force the bob on the spring experiences and the extension and contraction of the spring in time.

x is the displacement by which the object is stretched or compressed from its original neutral position of equilibrium.

The negative sign (-) in the formula is used to signify that the restoring force due to the spring is in the opposite direction to the force which caused the displacement. What this means is that if you move the spring to the right, the force will be towards the left, and if the spring is towards the left, the force will be towards the right. This is the case until the bob on the spring reaches a net force of 0, meaning the bob has reached its neutral position of equilibrium.

With all of these terms combined we get the formula for calculating the spring force.

Go Back to Force Page Hooke's Law (Vertical)