Tension: The Force In Any Stretched Body

NAME: INSTRUCTOR: INSTITUTION: DATE: Tension is the force that arises in any stretched body. The tension in a spring is equal and opposite to its weight. This force is also as a result of electromagnetic interactions between the molecules of a material making up the spring. When a spring is overstretched, it pulls out from its coiled shape into a long wire, then the spring is said to be under tension. In physics, tension may also be described as the pulling force transmitted axially by the means of a string, cable, chain or similar one-dimensional continuous object (Tsokos, 2010). It may also be described as the action-reaction pair of forces acting at each end. There are also other forces that are related to the tension of a spring. They include contact force and expansion force. Contact force refers to a push produced when two objects are pressed together while their surface atoms keep them together. Expansion force refers to a push found in a compressed spring (Katz, 2016).The tension in a spring is always proportional and opposite to the extension. That is, the more you want to extend and compress the spring, the bigger the force required to pull or push with. This can be explained better using the following expression; T=kx. Whereby k= the constant of proportionality known as the spring constant. The figure below shows tension force in a string, For example, when a string hangs from the ceiling and mass is tied on the other end then the tension is said to have been created. Tension force then pulls down the ceiling from the point of support and at the point where the mass is tied it acts upwards on it (Tsokos, 2010). The figure 3.3 above shows how tension is directed along the string. Mostly, the spring is considered massless not because it has no mass, but because its mass is very less compared to any other mass. Therefore, T-tension is always the same all over the string and its movement is also along the string. Types of springs. Springs are used as an everyday tool used by most people and their inertia are often neglected by assuming its mass is less. It’s always a very casual activity that a spring when stretched it undergoes displacement. That is, it gets compressed and when it is released it comes to the equilibrium position. It also tells that springs to apply an equal as well as opposite force on a body which stretches or compresses it. The springs are classified according to how the load force is applied to them. They include, tension/extension spring that is designed to operate with a tension load and so the spring stretches as the load is applied to it.The second type is the compression spring that is designed to operate with a compression load, so the spring gets shorter as the load is applied to it.Torsion spring that is unique from the rest is also known as the a torque. There are also other springs like constant spring, variable spring, machined spring and flat spring. (Tsokos, 2010). The following is a worked out example. A 0.50m spring with constant 100N\M hangs from the ceiling. A 2.0kg block is tied to the spring. How much does the spring stretch? (Use g=10m\s squared). Solution. The 2.0 kg mass applies a 20N force downwards on the spring (because this force is focused by the gravity-the pull of ...