How can I accurately determine the diameter of a wire using a spring?

Question

ScanSolve AI Tutor · Accepted Answer

Here's how to determine the diameter of the wire accurately:

Select a section of the spring where the coils are tightly wound and uniform.
Use a ruler to measure the total length ( $L$ ) of a large number of coils, for example, 20 coils.
Ensure the ruler is placed parallel to the axis of the spring and the measurement is taken from the start of the first coil to the end of the last coil.
Divide the total measured length ( $L$ ) by the number of coils ( $N$ ) to find the average diameter ( $d$ ) of a single wire.
$d = \frac{L}{N}$
For example, if the length of 20 coils is $2.5 \, \text{cm}$ , then the diameter of the wire is:
$d = \frac{2.5 \, \text{cm}}{20} = 0.125 \, \text{cm}$
This method improves accuracy because measuring a larger length reduces the percentage error associated with reading a very small individual diameter.

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