work hardening metal experiment

[dagonator]

I would like to conduct the "work hardening metal" experiment for my science project, but I am unsure how to measure the stiffness of the metal. Any ideas?
(this is the the experiment where you hit the aluminum strips with a hammer and it stiffens.)

[deleted-71882]

Hello dagonator,

You can measure the metal hardness in any of several ways, depending on what materials and instruments you have. I'll suppose you have coins, a postage scale and a ruler.

Weigh the coins on your postage scale and record the weights. After each hammering, clamp the metal sheet with the unclamped side next to a ruler. Stack coins on the end of the sheet until it bends a certain amount--let's say 5 mm. Record how much weight it takes to bend the sheet.

As the metal hardens, it should take more weight to bend the sheet a fixed amount.

Give this a try or make some variation to suit what you have available.

Good luck, WW