Stretching to Compare Properties: The Plastic Test

After a brief history of plastics, students look more closely as some examples from the abundant types of plastics found in our day-to-day lives. They are introduced to the mechanical properties of plastics, including their stress-strain relationships, which determine their suitability for different industrial and product applications. These physical properties enable plastics to be fabricated into a wide range of products. Students learn about the different roles that plastics play in our lives, Young's modulus, and the effects that plastics have on our environment. Then students act as industrial engineers, conducting tests to compare different plastics and performing a cost-benefit analysis to determine which are the most cost-effective for a given application, based on their costs and measured physical properties.

View the full activity at TeachEngineering:
https://www.teachengineering.o....rg/activities/view/n

TeachEngineering has over 1,500 FREE lessons and activities.
Visit http://www.TeachEngineering.org for more!

Music: Jazz Apricot