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EQUATIONS OF SCIENCE |
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EQUATIONS OF SCIENCE |
LESSON 5. Hooke’s Law Robert Hooke was an enlightened scientist of his time (1635 – 1703). He was an experimental scientist that included research in physics, geology, mathematics, and biology. He was orphaned at 13 years of age, but his natural curiosity of all of science overcame his loneliness. No pictures of Hooke have survived, except for a commemorative window which was lost during a bomb at the end of the 20th century.
He invented many useful apparatus including a universal joint, iris diaphragm, prototype to a respirator, improvements to many meteorological instruments, spring control of the balance wheel in watches, and improved the simple compound microscope that helped him discover cells. A “law” is even named after him in physics called “Hooke’s Law.” Robert Hooke observed and created an equation that connected showed the extension of the spring is proportional to the weight hanging from it. It wasn't until 1678 that Robert Hooke expressed his law that the distance a spring stretches is proportional to the force exerted on it. In mechanics this law states that the stress (pressure) of a solid is directly proportional to the strain (actual deformation). Tension is proportional to extension. |
