Physics

Okay, first: do you know the spring constant of every spring?

Hint: at each point where the springs connect the nett force should be 0.

>>318530
No but i have other wieghts with labeled masses

>>318533
Why not use the labeled masses to find the spring constant, and then you can use the spring constant to find the unknown mass

>>318537
A requirement is to deduce the mass from the slope of the best fit line
would i still be able to find the unknown mass that way if i use the different masses and find the spring constant?

Its like this
http://phet.colorado.edu/sims/mass-spring-lab/mass-spring-lab_en.html
Would i be able to find the mass of an unlabeled object using the linearized graph of certain data points?

>>318539
>A requirement is to deduce the mass from the slope of the best fit line
If you have specific requirements for the problem you should always state them. There's often many different ways to solve a problem and you'll just be wasting everyone's time without giving details.

I'm assuming the slope you're talking about is on some graph of distance the string stretches on one axis and mass on the other axis?

If so then you just look at Hooke's law:
F = -kx
m*g = -kx
m/x = -k/g

So since slope is "rise over run" that means m is your "rise" (y-axis) and x is your "run" (x-axis).

Then you use the other masses and start plotting points and make a best fit line.
Once you have the best fit line you see what your x is for the unknown mass and then see what the corresponding y value is on your graph. That will be the mass.

>>318554
but that's deducing the mass from the line of best fit, not the slope of it

>>318634

And?
Best fitting is always done in real experiments and the slope doesnt give you the mass, it gives you the "stretch per mass" / "mass per stetch" depending on how you chose the axis. so to get a mass value you choose a stretch value and look which is its corresponding mass.

>>318634#
I have no idea this is all too confusing for me

>>318634
Yes it is.
You are using the slope, just graphically.

But if you want to actually take the slope value and use it mathematically then find the best fit line, calculate its slope, and then the slope value is equal to
>-k/g
Then use that value and multiply how far the unknown mass stretches the spring and you get the mass.

It's exactly the same, just the other way is a graphical method of multiplying the slope by x.