STRETCHING PATTERN OF RUBBER BAND

(An investigatory Study Report)

-BY ARAVIND P NIRAJ

PROJECT REPORT ON PHYSICS Roll No.19
XI-A
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my thanks to Principal Ms.
Tejashwini Sankeshwar for her encouragement that
motivated me for the successful completion of Project
Work. I wish to express my gratitude to Ms. Rani
Somayya for her continuous Guidance, initiative and
providing a good working environment and for also her
unfailing support throughout the Project Work. And lastly
I would hereby acknowledge and thank my parents and
friends who have been a source of inspiration and also
instrumental in the successful completion of this Project
work.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
S.No. TOPIC
NO.
1 AIM 4

2 MATERIALS REQUIRED 5

3 ABSTRACT 6

4 INTRODUCTION 7

5 PRINCIPLE 9

6 PROCEDURE 12

7 OBSERVATIONS 14

8 CALCULATIONS 15

9 RESULT 17

10 CONCLUSION 18

11 FURTHER SCOPE OF STUDY 19

12 LIMITATIONS 20

13 PRECAUSIONS 20

14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 21

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AIM
To analyse the stretching action of a rubber band
specimen and to find its Young’s modulus. Also to
investigate the applicability of Hooke’s law for rubber
bands. We can investigate Hooke's Law by measuring
how much known forces stretch a spring. We can think of
Hooke’s Law as a simplified version of Young’s Modulus,
and it is classically applied to spring systems. Let’s return
to rubber bands. As rubber bands are elastic solids and
show similar stretching patterns as that of a spring, they
can also be described with Hooke’s Law.

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MATERIALS REQUIRED

For this experiment we require

 A Rubber band about 10cm length
 A rigid support
 100g weights
 A scale
 A fine pointer

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ABSTRACT
Hypothesis of this study was that rubber bands are ideal
elastic materials, exhibiting stretch in direct proportion to
loads and that bands of any length respond equally to
pulling forces. A rubber band is being exposed to a step-
wise longitudinal loading process, and the stretch
response after each step of the load was measured.

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INTRODUCTION
Elastic substances respond to forces acting on them by
showing a change in their dimensions and return to their
size when force is withdrawn from them. Stress is the
force imposed on the unit area of the substance, and
strain is the ratio of change in size to the original size.
Hooke's law states that strain is directly proportional to
the stress subjected within a specific range on an elastic
substance, and the constant for proportionality is called
the elastic modulus.
Thus, according to Hooke's law, F = -kΔx, where: F is the
spring force, k is the elastic modulus specific to the
material, and Δx is the displacement .
In daily life, rubber bands are familiar objects widely used
to bind objects together. However, they are also used in
various other applications such as ‘do-it-yourselves’ toys
and the fitness industry. If rubber bands behave ideally
like elastic objects, and recoil to the original shape after
use, their applications and durability will differ from those
of non-ideal elastic objects. Establishing the properties of
rubber bands and determining their specifications would
be crucial to classify, grade, and improve their standards
for future use. For instance, rubber that can withstand
pulling forces can be used as therabands in the fitness
industry, whereas that having has high hysteresis, the
elastic energy dissipated per unit volume during the
deformation process, is suitable for manufacturing sound
and vibration absorption materials. Hysteresis can further
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be understood as the difference of energy between the
elongation and the contraction of the rubber bands and is
presented as the area between the loading and unloading
part of a graph. Similarly, ideal elastic rubber bands, if
available, can be used to measure weights of objects
because they will have a property to stretch in proportion
to forces applied, like spring gauges do.

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PRINCIPLE
YOUNG’S MODULUS:
The mechanical property of a material to withstand the
compression or the elongation with respect to its length.
It is denoted as Y.
Young’s Modulus (also referred to as the Elastic Modulus
or Tensile Modulus), is a measure of mechanical
properties of linear elastic solids like rods, wires, and
such. Other numbers measure the elastic properties of a
material, like Bulk modulus and shear modulus, but the
value of Young’s Modulus is most commonly used. This
is because it gives us information about the tensile
elasticity of a material (ability to deform along an axis).
Young’s modulus describes the relationship between
stress (force per unit area) and strain (proportional
deformation in an object). The Young’s modulus is named
after the British scientist Thomas Young. A solid object
deforms when a particular load is applied to it. The body
regains its original shape when the force is removed if the
object is elastic. Many materials are not linear and elastic
beyond a small amount of deformation. The constant
Young’s modulus applies only to linear elastic
substances.
Young’s Modulus Formula
Y= σ/€ ,where
σ = longitudinal stress
€ = longitudinal strain

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RUBBER BAND
As there is energy loss, the graph of stress versus strain
for a rubber band is not a straight line. Hence the Young’s
modulus cannot be defined uniquely .For a given stress it
is defined as the slope of the stress strain curve at a
particular stress strain point.
Elastic Hysteresis
Elastic Hysteresis is the difference between the strain
energy required to generate a given stress in a material,
and the material's elastic energy at that stress. This
energy is dissipated as internal friction (heat) in a material
during one cycle of testing (loading and unloading).

The area enclosed by the Hysteresis is a measure of

energy loss during the loading and unloading cycle

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The forward curve in the graph corresponds to the string
stretching when more weights are added to it because the
force exerted by the weights on the string is rising.
The backward curve occurs when the string is shrinking
and the force is lowered as each weight is removed.
As the weights are removed from the band, each weight
that created a given length while loaded compresses less,
resulting in a somewhat higher strain for the same
amount of stress, as we can see in the graph.
The gap between the strain energy required to achieve
certain stress in a material and the material's elastic
energy at that tension is known as elastic hysteresis.
During stretching, the differential energy is released as
internal resistive heat energy in the material.
Residual Energy: On removing the deforming force,if the
length of the specimen does not reduce its original length.
This results in residual strain.

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PROCEDURE
1. Suspend a rubber band from a rigid support and
attach a hanger of mass 10g along with a fixed
pointer at the lower end.
2. Fix a scale S vertically such that the pointer moves
freely on the scale and note the reading on the scale.
3. Place 10g slotted weight in the hanger and wait till
the rubber band becomes stationary. Read the
position of the pointer -Fig (1)
4. Repeat Step 3 by increasing load in Steps of 10 g till
the total weight is 80-100 g.
5. Start removing the weight in Steps of 10 g and note
the corresponding reading of the pointer (Give time
for the rubber to stabilise before taking the reading).
6. Repeat Steps 1 to 5 for different samples of rubber
bands.
7. All the readings are tabulated as in Table(1)
8. A graph is also to be potted by taking load along Y-
axis and extension along X axis –Fig (2)

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TAKING MEASUREMENT

Fig (1) Picture of stretch measurement. A meter scale with cm and mm marked
on it was arranged adjacent to the rubber band. A toothpick embedded at the
junction of the weight and the rubber band’s end was used as a pointer for
measurement of stretch (displacement of the distal end of the rubber band) on
the scale.

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 OBSERVATION
Least Count of the scale = 0.1 cm
Original Length of un stretched Rubber Band,L= 10cm

LOAD READING OF
EXTENSION(cm)
SUSPENDED POINTER, r(cm)
Sl.No.
= APPLIED
FORCE=F(N)
LOADING UNLOADING LOADING UNLOADING

1
0.98 37.2 36.6 0 0

2
1.96 35.6 34.7 1.6 3.3

3
2.94 31.6 30.7 5.2 6.8

4
3.92 26.1 25.0 11.1 12.2

5
4.90 20.3 19.6 16.9 17.0

Table (1)

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CALCULATIONS
A) PLOTTING LOAD VERSUS EXTENSION GRAPH
A graph is plotted by taking Extension(cm) along X –axis and
Load (N)along Y-axis

Fig (2) Load Extension Graph

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 B) CALCULATION OF ENERGY LOSS FROM GRAPH
Energy loss= Area enclosed by the Hysteresis loop.
= 6Ncm
= 6X10-2 Nm
= 6X10-2 J

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RESULT
Energy loss in the given Rubber band
specimen after loading and unloading
experiment= =6X10-2 J

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CONCLUSION
While the initial loading steps removed only the slack of
bands, a marked stretch behaviour was observed soon.
A linear relationship between stretch and applied force,
noted in a few intermediate steps, was lost eventually. So,
the initial hypothesis that the rubber bands follow Hooke's
law is proved to be false.

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FURTHER SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study can be extended to evaluate the area between
the loading and unloading lines of the graph for
understanding hysteresis.
The differences between multiple-step loading and
single-step loading and the impact of factors like
thickness, temperatures, and brands can also be studied.
This study can be used in further research of the
properties and molecular structure of rubber bands and
to compare them with some visco-elastic structures .

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LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY
The probable limitation of this study may be the errors
due to a looped knot at the connecting points.
Parallax errors may cause while taking scale readings.

PRECAUSIONS
However, to minimize errors, we ensured that the bands
had no twists or loops in length between the connections.
A looped knot is justified at the connection, because if the
bands were simply clamped with available clips, they
quickly slipped from the clips with minimal loading.
A simple knot was avoided because it would inevitably
pull and stretch the rubber bands before the experiment,
impacting the readings. On the contrary, the loop
automatically fastens the rubber band (without pulling
while fastening) while loading, leading to better reliability.
The weight must be added gently
We should wait for few second before taking readings
after addition or removal of weights.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Laboratory Manual Class XI –Physics
by NCERT
 Class XI Physics Text Book Part II by
NCERT
 https://www.scientificamerican.com/
article/bring-science-home-rubber-
bands-energy/

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