Learn about Rubber Bands

Rubber band bracelets

One of the most commonly used things in any house-hold in any part of the world is, the rubber band. The rubber band was first made in London in 1823 by Sir Thomas Hancock. Since then, there have been many improvemnts in the quality of the rubber band and it has come to be adjudged as one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.

Even though the rubber band is used extensilvely as a packing aid, some people hit upon the idea of making a rubber ball by simply stretching rubber bands, one over the other. The world record ( as recognised by Guinness Book) is held by John Bane of Wilmington, Delaware, USA. Here are the statistics of the biggest rubber band ball in the world.

Weight - 2800 lbs

Height - 5 feet

Diameter - 15 feet

Time taken - 4 years, 2 months

Number of rubber bands used - 5 lakh, 50 thousand

cost - 12,000 dollars

Why does a rubber ball bounce?

Rubber is viscoelastic material which means it is both viscous and elastic. Rubber is characterized by its resilence - if you drop it  from a height of 1 metre, then it will bounce back to 0.5 to 0.7 metre depending on the rubber type and resilence value. Higher the resilence, higher is the bounce which means higher elasticity and lesser viscosity.

Generally, butadiene rubber has higher resilence property, followed by natural rubber. Due to this resilence property of rubber, it is used in tyres, etc.