An idea that is primarily difficult to understand in this experiment is compliance.
The words compliance and stretchiness can be used in place of each other; they mean the same thing.
For example:
A spring that is really stretchy and flexible would be considered very compliant.
While a spring that is stiff would be considered much less compliant.
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In the Adhesion Project, if the design involves springs or rubber bands, by changing the compliance/stretchiness, you can test how sticky the adhesive is. Applying compliance to a real life situation, with a gecko climbing up a surface, changing the surface is as though you are changing the compliance. A gecko's ability to climb up a tree is different from its ease of climbing up a brick wall. The surfaces are different, so compliance is different.
Something to consider is what material/tool to use for the compliance aspect of the experiment. We could use springs, rubber bands, or any tool that allows its stretchiness to be altered.
***Dr. Crosby also pointed out something very important: "two different materials can have the same compliance under certain conditions. Because compliance is a product of both material properties and geometry, for example, two materials can have different material properties but still have the same compliance if their geometries are different. Also, the materials properties that are most closely related to compliance for an isotropic (equal physical properties) material are the elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio. These properties are not necessarily unique to a given material. In other words, two materials of different compositions may have the same elastic modulus and Poisson's ratio."
Thank you Dr. Crosby, that helped a lot. A description of Poisson's ratio and elastic modulus is below the compliance section on this page.
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The math involved is best explained below:
The majority of the formulas involve calculus. Don't worry, understanding and calculating will be my (Nasim) job.
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ELASTIC MODULUS
In understanding compliance, the elastic modulus is a major concept.
Elastic modulus is an object's/substance's tendency to be changed elastically when a force is applied to it.
Another name for it is Young's Modulus.
The formula for elastic modulus can then be applied to the stiffness of a spring (integral of compliance).
