Hooke's Law, Principle of Physics, 1678. Hooke's law is a principle of physics that states that the force F needed to extend or compress a spring by some distance X is proportional to that distance. That is: F = kX, where k is a constant factor characteristic of the spring: its stiffness, and X is small compared to the total possible deformation of the spring. The law is named after 17th century English physicist Robert Hooke. He first stated the law in 1660 as a Latin anagram. He published the solution of his anagram in 1678 as: ut tensio, sic vis ("as the extension, so the force" or "the extension is proportional to the force").