Does the cutting of a spring make it softer or harder?

[Mux213]

Actually, it does change. The thing is, as force is applied each winding compresses a certain amount.

So say that you have 5 windings and uncompressed your spring has a lenght of 50cm. Under load, say 250kg the spring compresses to a length of 40cm.

With a lineair spring this means the spring has a stiffness of 250kg/100mm = 2.5kg/mm.

It also means that under this load each winding compresses from 10cm to 8cm (thus 2cm compression under 250kg per winding).

If you cut one winding and end up with 4 windings you get 40cm length uncompressed (4x10cm) and 32cm length compressed (4x8cm).

This means that you now have a stiffness of 250kg/80mm =3.125 kg/mm

The spring has become stiffer and you get an 8 cm lowering of your car.

Well thats the theory as far as I've understood is, no idea if this theory is correct, I'm no expert