PHYSICAL REVIEW FOCUS 20 February 2007 http://focus.aps.org/
David Ehrenstein, American Physical Society
Introductions to the Focus stories of the past week;
visit http://focus.aps.org for the complete stories.
RUBBER THEORY FITS WITHOUT A STRETCH
You can easily measure the force produced by a drastically
stretched rubber band. But the standard theory of rubbery
materials can't predict this force. In the 16 February Physical
Review Letters, researchers make theory agree with experiment
by taking into account a previously neglected aspect of the way
rubber molecules move. While the theory won¿t provide new
insights for tire manufacturers, it solves a scientific problem
that has vexed researchers since the 1940s.
(X. Xing et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 075502)
Link to the paper: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v98/e075502
COMPLETE Focus story at http://focus.aps.org/story/v19/st5
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Copyright 2007, The American Physical Society.
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