About Springs

Let's do some simple work with springs. Hang various masses from a spring, and determine how the force exerted by a spring varies with  how much the spring is stretched. Do this with more than one spring.

Load a ball (of measured mass) into the launcher and compress the spring. Measure how much the spring is compressed and then measure how high the ball travels. Do this for different amounts of spring compression and then determine how spring potential energy depends on compression.

Do rubber bands store and release energy in the same way? Confirm this.