This type of graph is called the elastic hysteresis loop. This shows that the rubber was harder to stretch when loading rather than unloading, because more energy was required when loading, because the energy was lost as heat and sound.
The social benefits are that, more and more people are taking advantage of what rubber can do. For example, nowadays, contraception is a very big issue, and many young teenagers and youngsters have unwanted pregnancies. Also, the export of natural rubber helps the economy and boosts money which can be spent on important topics, such as reducing poverty, improving hospitals, education and many more.
The environmental problem is that the tyres made out of rubber are not biodegradable, so are very difficult to recycle and dispose of. They use up a lot of room, and also, if caught on fire, take a huge amount of energy and time to extinguish, releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere. However, this could be tweaked to be a benefit for the environment, as tires could be an energy source for the people. They could burn tires, reducing costs on energy, or maybe shredding the tyres and putting them on kids’ playgrounds ensuring it has a sustainable development.
Also, factories that produce rubber release many gases into the atmosphere, contributing to global warming and climate change, making the world a more hotter and dangerous place to live in. Moreover, rubber comes from trees, so the more rubber we produce, the more trees we cut (deforestation), and the more it contributes to global warming/climate change.
Rubber’s history is thought to have originated in 1600 BCE for the Mayan people, where it was used as a medicine, as entertainment and supposedly a rubber. Then, in the 1700s and early 1800s, rubbers were actually made industrially, and more and more products were invented through the finding of this rubber in trees. Then, in 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a new process called vulcanisation; when, Charles accidentally heated sulphur with rubber, and produced a compound that had additional, different properties than rubber (e.g. wasn’t sticky at high temperatures etc.)
Nowadays, synthetic rubber is more common and made from crude oil, as natural rubber only occurs in hot, damp conditions e.g. near the equator (Amazon Rainforest), so is rare and also more expensive to manufacture.
This practical relates to my case study, as both these materials are polymers and have long chains. Also, I have talked about the force extension graphs, their trends and line of best fits, which I have also discussed in the practical. Because, we’re talking about the stress and strain of an polymer in the case study, it links in as we find the young modulus of an polymer in the practical and talk about how it shows the stiffness of an material, not an object etc.
Bibliography
1.
2. http://www.answers.com/topic/rubber
3.
4.
5. Author : Mike Benn, Graham George
Year : 2008
Publisher : Hodder Education
Title : Edexcel Physics for AS
Page : 69
6. Author: Chris Ferguson
Year: April 2002
Publisher : Philip Allan Updates
Title : Chemistry Review – “Getting tyred with chemistry! The chemistry of car and bicycle tyres.”