Look at the equation shown below. It can be used to find the force applied to an elastic object like a spring. What does k represent?

## Step 1: The equation in question is not provided, but it is likely to be similar to Hooke's Law, which is often used to describe the behavior of springs. Hooke's Law is usually written as , where is the force applied to the spring, is the displacement of the spring from its equilibrium position, and is a constant.## Step 2: In the context of Hooke's Law, is known as the spring constant. It is a measure of the stiffness of the spring. A larger value of means that the spring is stiffer, and a smaller value of means that the spring is more flexible.## Step 3: Therefore, in the context of this problem, represents the stiffness of the spring, or how much force is needed to stretch or compress the spring by a certain amount.