- #1
joeh1971
- 5
- 0
If you take a piece of steel wire and pull it with your fingers it is very difficult to stretch. However, if you coil that steel wire around a pencil it now becomes very easy to stretch. Why is a coiled wire (i.e.- a spring) really easy to stretch or squeeze but the same piece of metal, in the form of a wire, was so reluctant to change shape in the first place?
I know that the interatomic forces in the straight wire are very large making it very difficult to stretch the wire by a large distance but how does changing the wire shape decrease those forces? Any insight into the physics mechanism involved will be very helpful. An explanation in terms of the forces involved is what I am looking for.
I know that the interatomic forces in the straight wire are very large making it very difficult to stretch the wire by a large distance but how does changing the wire shape decrease those forces? Any insight into the physics mechanism involved will be very helpful. An explanation in terms of the forces involved is what I am looking for.