Hooke's law experiment using an electronic speckle pattern interferometry

This paper presents an approach based on a laser interferometer set-up to perform an experimental study of Hooke's law for the case of the bending of a cantilever beam. We used weights and a pulley to deform the beam laterally and measured displacement with an electronic speckle pattern interferometer (ESPI). The ESPI set-up was built using items commonly found in an undergraduate optics laboratory and the software used for the measurement as presented in this paper is available for anyone to use. This represents an attempt at content development with an ESPI; development of various types of content with ESPIs can broaden the horizons of higher education and enhance classroom environments.