I know nothing about cars but I have a Physics lab on the topic. I think it‘s quite clear that the question wants me to use Hooke‘s law to determine the spring constant of the suspension system; the problem is that I have no clue how to go about it. Any suggestions?
Kev, Without disassembling the car, the only practical way to test the stiffness is to apply a weight w at each corner (preferably right over the tire) and measure the downward deflection d. Then, at each location, k w/d and the total k for the whole car would be K 4w/(Σd) In this case the 'suspension system' includes the tires as well as the springs shock absorbers.
