Finding the Spring Constant in a Vertical Mass-Spring System

[TN17]

Homework Statement

For an experiment, we used a vertical mass-spring system and we are trying to find k, the spring constant.
The only values we know are the mass and the displacement.

If we were to use F = -kx, what would F be? A website said it would be 9.8, but I'm not sure about that.
Is there another way to find the k?

 

[tiny-tim]

Hi TN17!

If we were to use F = -kx, what would F be? A website said it would be 9.8, but I'm not sure about that.

Yes, you're balancing the force of gravity against the force of the spring.

So F has to be the force of gravity, which is 9.81 times the mass in kg.

Is there another way to find the k?

You could measure time of the oscillations instead of displacement but that probably couldn't be done to the same accuracy.