Question

For Hooke's Law, the one about springs and mass, is the mass M a unit of g or kgs?

Answer 1

Mass does not appear directly in Hooke's law. It is a relationship between force (or weight) and deflection, distortion or strain. The force usually has units of kg*m/s^2, so k has units of kg/s^2

Answer 2

I'm writing a prac report on an experiment where we had to vary the mass on a spring, and graph it against the period, then graph it again when period vs square root of mass, which should be linear given the proportionality. Does it really matter which unit i use? g or kg

Answer 3

No, it doesnt matter.

To prove the relationship
Period = 2 pi sqrt(m/k), the spring constant k can have units of g/s^2 (or dyne/cm)if the m has units of g.

Answer 4

Thanks