Rubber Band Lab

In class:
The purpose of this lab was to figure out how we can store energy, particularly that of a rubber band. The standard that introduced us to this was standard 3.3. In this experiment we "single looped" a rubber band and measured how much force it took to pull it. We started with 1 cm and increased to 5 cm in increments of 1. After we completed these tests, we ran another experiment but this time the rubberband was looped around the notches two times. After recording the data, we derived the equation Us=1/2kx^2, meaning that the Elastic Potential Energy is equal to half of the elastic constant multiplies by the distance stretched (which is squared).

Data:


Big Questions: "How can we store energy to do work for us later?"

Trial One:  Test One (Single Loop)
1 cm:  Force .39
2 cm:  Force .92
3 cm:  Force 1.31
4 cm:  Force 1.94
5 cm:  Force 2.9

Trial One:  Test Two
1 cm:  Force .38
2 cm:  Force .91
3 cm:  Force 1.25
4 cm:  Force 1.87
5 cm:  Force 2.74

Trial Two:  Test One (Double Loop)
1 cm:  Force 3.1
2 cm:  Force 4.4
3 cm:  Force 6.3
4 cm:  Force 8.0
5 cm:  Force 10.8

As you can tell from the data that my group and I collected, as the distance we used to pull the rubber band increased, so did the amount of force needed to pul it.   

Connection to the Real World:
The strongest connection that I could find to the real world would have to be firing a bow and arrow. The same concept of storing energy in a rubberband applies to this as well. When you pull the string attached to the bow back and get ready to fire your arrow, you are storing energy. Also, just like in the lab if you pull the string further and further back, you will store more and more energy in the bow thus enabling you to fire the arrow for a greater distance.