| Chronology | Current Month | Current Thread | Current Date |
| [Year List] [Month List (current year)] | [Date Index] [Thread Index] | [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] | [Date Prev] [Date Next] |
brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>So we have two possible explanations. How do you know
that your (making sense) explanation corresponds to what
actually motivated the designers and that they wanted us to
hung spring with more massive coils up?
I most certainly don't, though I can ask colleagues who may
have been around when the springs were first purchased. That's
the explanation that we give the students in our lab manual,
so it *must* be true!
We have students *measure* the fraction of the spring's mass
that must be included in the formula for the period. They
usually get about a third, with a fairly large spread. I've
never done the experiment carefully enough myself to see
whether the small deviation from 1/3 that you predict can
be measured.
Dan