Jon and Paul explore Hooke's Law

Our science team have been busy this week creating a range of investigations to challenge you to take on a hands on approach to exploring science. In this lesson, Jon sets out an investigation which explores Hooke's Law. Hooke's law models the properties of springs for small changes in length and was created by a scientist called Robert Hooke.

Robert Hooke, (born July 18, 1635, Freshwater, Isle of White, England—died March 3, 1703, London), English physicist who discovered the law of elasticity, known as Hooke's Law and who did research in a remarkable variety of fields.

This theory of elasticity says the extension of a spring is proportional to the load applied to it. Many materials obey this law as long as the load does not exceed the material's elastic limit. Materials for which Hooke's law is useful are known as linear-elastic or "Hookean" materials.

Examples of everyday objects that have elastic potential energy are stretched or compressed elastic bands, springs, bungee cords, car shock absorbers, etc.