Dissemination of IT for the Promotion of Materials Science (DoITPoMS)

DoITPoMS Teaching & Learning Packages The Stiffness of Rubber

The Stiffness of Rubber

This teaching and learning package is based on a two experiments which demonstrate the behaviour of rubber under tension. The first displays the unusual behaviour of a rubber strip when heated under tension; the second considers the behaviour of a rubber membrane under tension. In both cases the behaviour is considered theoretically in terms of the molecular structure of rubber and the thermodynamic entropy changes involved.

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Photograph of contraction experiment

First created: April 2004. Last updated: August 2006.