Passage IV

Some students conducted experiments using different brands of adhesive tape, one kind each of paper and plastic, a board, and a spring scale.

Experiment 1

A student stuck one end of a piece of tape onto the edge of a board that was wrapped with paper. The other end of the tape was clamped to a spring scale, as shown in Figure 1.

While one student held the board, a second student pulled the spring scale until the tape came off the paper wrapping; a third student recorded the force in newtons, N, indicated on the spring scale at the moment the tape came off the paper wrapping.

The procedure was repeated for 3 different brands of tape; each brand of tape came in many different widths, of which 2 or 3 were tested. The results are shown in Table 1.

Experiment 2

The students performed an experiment similar to Experiment 1, except that the paper wrapping was replaced by a plastic wrapping. The results are shown in Table 2.