Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

I would like to know if heat affects the strength of a rubber band. Any information you could give me on this subject would be appreciated.

Thank you!
jazmath

Hey Jazmath,

This is an interesting question and maybe you can set up an experiment at home to figure out if heat will affect a rubber band. You could take a rubber band and suspend a weight on it (whatever you have around the house that will cause the rubber band to stretch but not break). Measure how far the rubber band stretches. Then take a hair dryer and heat the rubber band. See what happens! You could try putting the rubber band in the freezer to see what happens then. You could experiment with different lengths or thicknesses of rubber band.

Hopefully this helps

This is an excellent project - you might Google Richard Feynman and the Challenger disaster. The effect of temperature on elastic materials was the underlying cause of this disaster. You might try to duplicate the famous Feynman demonstration of cooling an o-ring (or in your case a rubber band) in ice water and then rapidly transferring it to boiling water (don't hesitate for a second - this must be one rapid move to show the actual effect on the rubber).

Also Google Edward Tufte's presentations on the Challenger and Morton Thiokol and the Challenger.