Build your own rheometer!
Rheometers are used to measure the mechanical properties of materials. While our hands can easily distinguish the difference between a soft and squishy material from a stiff one, quantifying these differences with commercial rheometers can be quite expensive. Here, we describe an inexpensive portable rheometer that can be used in the high-school and undergraduate classroom to teach basic concepts related to the mechanics of materials.
Teaching Materials
References
P.A. Janmey, A torsion pendulum for measurement of the viscoelasticity of biopolymers and its application to actin networks. Journal of Biochemical and Biophysical Methods, 22:41-45 (1991)