Investigating Proportionality of Elastic Band Range to Pull-Back Length

[sarahowen]

im doing a lab tomorrow that i must plan soon. if we fire an elastic band, the length we stretch it will affect the range but how do i support my hypothesis that range is proportional to pull back length?

do i use hookes law assuming that pull back length is the same as extention?

any tips are welcome :) just to get me started.

thanks in advance
saz

 

[FredGarvin]

You're on the right track. You can measure how far you pull back on the rubber band and then measure how far it goes. Do that for multiple extensions and you should get a pretty good description of what is happening.

However, you may want to put some thought into how you pull back and release the rubber band. I can see a lot of items that will impact the variability of your results. For instance, a rubber band will fly a lot farther if you induce a rotation to it than it would if it doesn't rotate. Do your best to come up with a way to shoot the rubber band the exact same way every time.