Force and Tensile Strength - History of STEM practicals - Paper Part 1

Practical 9 in the History in STEM practical series.
This is part 1 of a two part mini-series on the history and development of paper. In this practical, paper is pitted against papyrus in a battle to see which of the two can support the most weight and has the higher tensile strength.
There are two methods available, one with pre-purchased papyrus and another with full instructions on how to make papyrus from scratch to test the different properties. Once you have the papyrus paper, the practical can be run with little equipment and is easy to improvise and adapt to what you already have in the lab.

More about the History in STEM practical Series
This series is designed to bring quality cross-curricula material to STEM subjects, that help students to explore and discover phenomena normally taught, while getting a glimpse into the history of its development.
In addition, a number of the practicals give the students the opportunity to play “Mythbusters”, looking at a number of different methods and having to reason why one or the other was the more likely or useful method.
From Ancient Greece to Vikings, China to the Golden age of the Muslim empire and beyond to India, the series takes a look at some of the most important STEM achievements throughout history.
There is a plan for 40 of these such practicals in this series, so, if you liked this one, consider looking at some of the others, or check out some of the bundles available.

Other practicals in the series:

• Check out the bundle for the best savings

or get the individual practicals:

• Similar Triangles - History of STEM practicals - How Far Is That Boat?
• Water Alarm Clock - History of STEM practicals - Pressure and Displacement
• Viking Sunstones - History of STEM practicals - Refraction and Birefringence
• Pythagoras’ Cup - History of STEM practicals - Siphon
• Archimedes’ Eureka - History of STEM practicals - Density
• Measuring the World - History of STEM Practicals - Circumference of Circles
• Chemical Reactions - History of STEM practicals - Invisible Ink Practical
• Statistics and Cryptography - History of STEM practicals - Crack the Code
• Force and Tensile Strength - History of STEM practicals - Paper Part 1