Hey.
I plan to have students determine spring constants by both standard hooke's law relationships and the oscillation of a mass on the spring.
How would folks on this list recommend determining and using uncertainty for a lab like this? How would one show that the two spring constant values are close enough to be considered reasonably consistent?
The two values are not likely to be exactly the same. Students doing these things for the first time often see any difference in values to mean that one value is good and the other bad, or that the simple average of the two is the best value.
Thanks for your input.
Paul.