[Physics] Is mass proportional to the displacement from equilibrium in Hooke’s law

newtonian-mechanicsspring

If I look at Hooke's law as it's defined in my textbook, it looks like:

$F = -k\Delta s$

Therefore, the restoring force of an ideal spring will be proportional to the displacement from equilibrium, where $k$ will be the constant of proportionality. From this equation, I believe that it can't be said that mass is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium (even though it seems to be the case implicitly).

However, if I substitute $ma$ for the restoring force:

$ma = -k\Delta s$

Is it then valid to say that mass is proportional to the displacement from equilibrium, as well as mass is inversely proportional to acceleration? I've been thinking about proportionality a lot lately and this one sort of threw me for a loop.

Best Answer

In a sense yes, if you're very careful about what you're holding constant. Stating that a variable is proportional to another variable implies that all other relevant quantities are being held constant.

For example, there's a simple relation $d=vt$ that describes the distance $d$ something travels in a time $t$ when traveling at speed $v$. One might say that $d$ is proportional to $t$. However, this relation is only valid if the speed $v$ is constant throughout the interval $t.$

In your example, one could say that mass is proportional to displacement if the $k$ and $a$ are constant, but you will need to do some work to figure out what physical system(s) meet such requirements.