If you turn the rate around and state it as in/lb, it might be more easily
understandable. Therefore a spring with a "spring rate" of 100 lb/in would
be a .01 in/lb, stated in terms of how much the spring will deflect for a
given load. The more normal way is to say how much load will it take to
produce a given amount of deflection.
Also, with springs, I think you normally have more access to the load data
as a starting point. For example, maybe you know that each corner of your
car weighs 500 lbs. A 100 lb/in spring would yield 5 inches of deflection,
but a 200 lb/in spring would only yield 2.5 inches.
The human brain seems to be able to conceptualize integer values easier than
decimals or fractions. It's easier for most people to quickly calculate
500/100 than 500 * .01, although it's actually the exact same calculation.
Most of us engineer-geek types can do it either way.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marc Tyler [mailto:marc@animalfirm.com]
> Sent: Saturday, August 02, 2003 4:01 PM
> To: Gordon Glasgow
> Cc: datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Spring rate
>
>
> So on the spring that deflects more (2 inches) the spring rate is lower
> than on the spring that deflects less?
> higher rate = less travel? Sounds backwards. I'm sure you're
> correct, but it just sounds backwards. After all with MPH, CFPM, GPH,
> etc. higher rate = more travel.
> -Marc
>
>
> On Saturday, August 2, 2003, at 06:29 PM, Gordon Glasgow wrote:
>
> > If you have a spring with a rate of 100 lb/in and you put a load of
> > 200 lbs
> > on it, it will deflect 2 inches. If you have a spring with a rate of
> > 200
> > lb/in and you put a load of 200 lbs on it, it will deflect 1 inch.
> >
> ===============================================
> Marc Tyler Sisterdale TX
> 1970 1600 #SPL311-31016
> 1965 L-320 #L320 013642
> http://datsun_marc.tripod.com/cgi-bin/datsun_homepage.html
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