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Today's Things In Our Stuff is Spring, an elastic device that stores mechanical energy. Spring is perhaps one of the most ubiquitous and yet the most underrated mechanical component. You can find spring in toys, pens, appliances, gadgets, locks, vehicles, clocks, and many more.
Springs remains to be popular even up to this age because of its many purpose. First, springs can be used to hold, lock, or return an object to a particular place or position. Remember how our doors were equipped with springs for it to automatically close? Without springs on our door closers, we will have to manually close them everytime we go in or out. To be honest, that is a pretty tedious task for someone like me.
Springs can also absorb energy and in automobiles, springs are used in suspensions as shock absorbers to make our rides less bumpy. Suspension systems use heavy-duty springs to absorb the energy generated when the wheels encounters a bump.
A heavy-duty helical spring designed for compression and tension, Wikimedia
Aside from absorbing energy, springs can also store mechanical energy that can be used for long periods of time. A windup mechanical clock or watch uses the energy you stored by tightening a spring inside it when you turn its key. The energy will then be slowly released as the spring is loosen and turns the gears inside the clock and make it work for days or more.
While you may think that springs are modern day device, our early ancestors dating from the bronze age have been using springs. For example, the bow (and arrow) is an example of non-coiled spring. It seems a primitive weapon but it actually packs a lot of power to kill its target. How much power? According to Hooke's law, the force of a spring exerts is proportional to its extension. The bow has an elastic string acting like a spring. When released, it exerts a force proportional on how much you extended or pulled the string to send the arrow to your target.
The most common type of spring is the the coiled spring. It was first used in door locks in 15th century. By 16th century, coiled springs were used to power large mechanical watches. Other types of springs are cantilever spring, volute spring, hairsrping, leaf spring and v-spring.
Today, springs are found on almost all mechanical objects and plays very important role in our life without us even realizing it. In fact, this post was typed using a keyboard with springs underneath each keys that return the keys to normal position everytime my fingers are no longer pressing it.
Previous Things In Our Stuff:
Sim Card
The @ Sign
Transistor
Hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs)
Triclosan
Modified Starch
Activated Carbon
Sources: | Wikipedia | ExplainThatStuff! | historical locks |
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