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Mystery #3Tier 2materials / polymers

Why can you stretch a rubber band and it springs right back?

Pull a rubber band between your fingers and it stretches to twice its length, maybe more. Let go, and it snaps right back to exactly how it started, every single time. A strip of paper pulled like that would just tear. So what makes rubber spring back?

A large pile of colourful rubber bands tangled together
Photo: Bill Ebbesen · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Your guess

What do you think rubber is made of on the inside?

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