Rubber balls

Rubber elasticity has a long-standing history. Ancient Mesoamerican people were processing rubber by 1600 BC [1], which predated development of the vulcanization process by 3500 years. They made solid rubber balls, sofid and hollow rubber human figurines, wide rubber bands to haft stone ax heads to wooden handles, and other items. 

It is this principle that explains why a rubber ball travels further by bouncing. It is well known, however, that a ball does not bounce well in a field of mud. Nor do elite track athletes. Steve Ovett, a world record holder for the mile and 1500 m races, illustrated this point when he described his performance in a cross-country championship early in his career (1970) ... 

Columbus, on his seeond voyage to America, is reported to have seen the Indians of Haiti using rubber balls. By the 18th eentury, Europeans and Americans used NR to rub out marks made by lead peneils. The rubbing out use led to the name rubber. Because of the association of NR with the Ameriean Indian it was also called Indian rubber. ... 

Does this mean that a hyperbeing could turn a human inside out From a practical standpoint, we re not quite as flexible as a rubber ball. We re also not spheres. We re more like a sphere with a digestive tube... 

Nx being number of rubber particles along an X-axis and L being specimen thickness. Total number of rubber balls = NxNyNe. The number of cracks leaving each plane = 2n, where n = plane number. In a two-dimensional situation, the total number of cracks across the specimen is... 

Find two rubber balls that bounce to about the same height. Put one ball in the freezer section of a refrigerator. Leave the other ball out in the room. Wait about four hours. 

Some polymers are very rigid and stiff, like a plastic bottle. Other polymers are very flexible and can be stretched like a rubber band. Long chains of rubber molecules in a rubber ball can be pushed together... 

When rubber becomes cold, the molecules change from being flexible and stretchy to being stiff and rigid. When this happens, they cannot snap back into position. When a rubber ball gets very cold it will not bounce very high. 

There is evidence that natural rubber was used by early Americans to make rubber balls over 2000 years ago. However, it has only been since the early twentieth century that rubber has become crucial to maintaining our standard of living in our current technology-based society. Synthetic rubbers, or elastomers as any artificial substance with elastic properties is called, have been a subject of intense research since the late 1800s. These materials were critically needed in the first half of the twentieth century to replace natural rubber in the tires for the newly invented automobile, due to shortages of natural rubber caused by wars. 

As a complete alternative to snacking, keep one of those squeezable rubber balls or worry beads or something else nearby to occupy your hands instead of eating. Try putting a couple of lightweight dumbbells next to the couch or the chair and keep busy doing some exercise. 

To strengthen the grip of your hands there ore several beneficial exercises you may use. While they are old standbys for this purpose they are, nevertheless, very effective. One consists of kneading rubber balls, the size of tennis balls or smaller, in your hands. Another is to stand with arms outstretched and crumple a sheet of newspaper up in each hand, starting by holding them only by the edge or corners and continuing until they ore balled up in your hands. This exercise does not sound impressive but a few trials will convince you of its effectiveness. 

---