The title of the Project: Ohm’s law Purpose of the work: Expected results: Practical part Here is how the virtual laboratory looks like. Virtual experiment. Step 1. Change the voltage. How does the current strength change? Make a conclusion. Step 2. Change the resistance. How does the current strength change? Make a conclusion. Conclusion Current strength is directly proportional to the voltage and inversely proportional to the resistance.
The title of the Project: Resistance in a wire Purpose of the work: Expected results: Practical part This is how virtual laboratory looks like. Virtual experiment. Step 1. Change the resistivity. How does the resistance change? Make a conclusion. Step 2. Notice that when you increase resistivity the wire gets more dots in it. These are the ions that make electrons scatter and as a result increase resistance. Step 3. Change the length of the wire. How does the resistance change? Make a conclusion. Step 4. Change the area of the cross section of the wire. How does the resistance change? Make a conclusion. Conclusion Resistance is directly proportional to the resistivity and length of the wire, and inversely proportional to the cross-section area of the wire.
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The title of the project: Potential energy of the spring Purpose of the work: Expected results: Practical part To start the virtual experiment press “Energy” button. This is how the virtual laboratory looks like. Part 1. Dependence of potential energy on the spring’s constant Virtual experiment. Step 1. Stretch or compress the spring by changing the displacement. Step 2. Change the spring constant. How does the potential energy change? Step 3. Make a conclusion. Part 2. Dependence of the potential energy on the displacement of the spring Virtual experiment. Step 1. Stretch or compress the spring by changing the displacement. See how the energy changes. Step 2. Switch to the energy plot. What is the dependence of the potential energy to the displacement? As you increase the displacement, the energy increases in a quadratic way. The dependence is quadratic. Part 3. Calculate the potential energy Virtual experiment. Step 1. Switch to the force plot. Step 2. Calculate the area colored by blue. This is a right triangle; you multiply the bases to each other and divide by two. This gives the potential energy of the spring. Conclusion The potential energy of the spring has a quadratic dependence on the displacement and linear dependence on the spring’s constant. The potential energy increases as you increase the spring’s constant and vice versa, it is directly proportional to the spring’s constant.
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The title of the project: Systems of springs Purpose of the work: Expected results: Practical part To start the virtual experiment choose “Systems”. The virtual lab looks as follows. Part 1. Parallel connection Step 1. Take 2 springs connected in parallel and apply some force. Step 2. Notice that the displacements for both springs are the same. Step 3. Change the spring’s constant of one spring. Note that the elastic force of each spring is different since the spring’s constant is different. Step 4. Notice that the total elastic force of the system is the sum of elastic forces of each spring. Step 5. If you use Hooke’s law and the statements above, you can derive the total spring constant of the system, which is the sum of each springs’ constants. Part 2. Series connection Step 1. Take 2 springs connected in series and apply some force. Step 2. Change the spring’s constant of one spring. Notice that the displacements in series connection are different, but the elastic forces are the same for both springs. Step 3. The total elastic force of the system is the same as the elastic force of each spring’s elastic force, which are also the same. Step 4. Use Hooke’s law and the statements above to derive the total spring constant of the system. One over total spring constant is equal to the sum of one over each spring’s constants. Conclusion In parallel connection, the total spring constant of the system is equal to the sum of each spring’s constant. In series connection, one over total spring constant is equal to the sum of one over each spring’s constants.
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The title of the Project: Hooke’s law Purpose of the work: Expected results: Practical part To run the virtual experiment choose “Intro”. This is how the virtual lab looks like. Part 1. Proving Hooke’s law Virtual experiment. Step 1. Let’s apply some force and see what happens. The spring gets stretched for some displacement. Step 2. Increase the force and see if the displacement increases as well. Step 3. Repeat the previous step. Indeed, the Hooke’s law is confirmed that elastic force is directly proportional to the displacement. Step 4. Now compress the spring with some force, the spring gets displaced. If you increase the amount of applied force the displacement increases as well. Part 2. Dependence of elastic force on spring’s constant Virtual experiment. Step 1. Take 2 springs with different spring constants. Step 2. Apply the same amount of force on both and compare displacements. Step 3. Increase applied force to the spring with higher spring constant until both displacements are equal. Make a conclusion. Conclusion The Hooke’s law is confirmed, elastic force is directly proportional to the displacement of the spring and spring constant.
