Algodoo

Nicely done tutorial!

Question: You allow the user to add damping to the spring, but is that something which can be done in a real life spring? I thought damping is a property that's created in other external components of the mechanical "system". An example would be the damping effect caused by fluid dynamics (as in a shock absorber).

Q: You allow the user to add damping to the spring, but is that something which can be done in a real life spring?
A: Yes, but not typically. Google "Coil Springs with Constrained Layer Visco-elastic Damping for Passive Isolation".

The reason I added damping is because Algodoo has spring damping and also so the spring rate display would stabilize faster.

It's interesting to note that the spring constant isn't (constant that is). It gets slightly lower with greater applied forces. This is because the spring diameter gets slightly larger as the spring is compressed.

Interesting! Thanks for that information.