- #1
cy19861126
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Hey, I am confused about the Hooke's Law about the spring. If I am holding a spring vertically and hanging weights on the bottom of the spring so that my spring will be stretched longer, do I get a positive delta x? The equation of Hooke's Law is F = kx. If I do get a positive delta x, do I get a negative tension force or k? ie, say the spring was 46 cm, and it was stretched to 55 cm, and the weight put on the spring was 100g. Then in this case, to calculate k, the tension force would be .1 * 9.8 = 0.98 and delta x = final x - initial x = 55-46 = 9cm. So then k would be -0.98/9 = -0.11? How can you ever have a negative k? This is the part I don't understand