Instructions:

This interactive application illustrates a physics problem involving weight of an object and the resulting amount of stretch it causes when attached to a spring. Select an amount for the weight and attach it to the spring by clicking on "Attach weight to spring" to see the amount the spring stretches. The size of the weight and the amount of the stretch are plotted on the grid. Detach the weight, change its size, and then reattach a new weight to see the effect again. Each plot in the graph is an ordered pair of values (weight, amount of spring stretch).

After selecting several different values for the weight, can you determine the equation for the function? Check out problem 33 on page 179 of your textbook to see the original problem.

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