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Re: non-Hookeish springs



On Fri, 8 Nov 1996, Leigh Palmer wrote:

Rubber bands are another good non-Hookeish spring with characteristics
similar to car springs. I once studied their curve for purposes of
designing a "banana car" for a local science museum competition. The
purpose was to build a rubber band powered device (we call them
"elastic bands" here in Canada) which, using two standard rubber bands,
could carry a banana the greatest distance over a flat track within a
prescribed width. It was worthwhile to take account of the non-Hookeish
characteristic.

Leigh




Another neat use of their stretching properties (not original with
me) is to tie about ten bands together. Nail one end down and stretch out
the "string" of bands. Pick one knot in the string at random and measure
the distance to all the other knots. Stretch the string a bit more and
repeat the distance measurements, etc. You get a very nice Hubble law for
the expansion of this one dimensional system.


Mike Monce
Connecticut College