Although not as reviled as the sound of nails on chalkboard, the sound of adhesive tape being peeled is quite probably at least as distinctive. With every millimeter of the tape’s removal from the roll sounding like it’s screaming in protest, it has led some to wonder just why this process is noisy enough to be heard from across an open-plan office. Recently [Er Qiang Li] et al. had their paper on a likely theory published in Physical Review E, in which they examine the supersonic air pulses at the core of this phenomenon.
Using rolls of adhesive tape and two microphones synchronized with two high-speed cameras in a Schlieren imaging setup, they gathered experimental data of this stick-slip mechanism. Incidentally, in addition to this auditory effect, adhesive tape is also known for the triboluminescence effect, as well as the generating of X-rays, making them quite the source of scientific demonstrations, even when they’re not also being used to create graphene with.
What they deduced from the recorded data was that the transverse fractures that suddenly appear after the extended stick phase hold a vacuum until they reach the end of the fracture during the brief slip phase, at which point the vacuum collapses very suddenly. This produces a pressure of 9600 Pa and clearly visible shock fronts on the Schlieren images.
Now that we know why peeling adhesive tape from its roll is so noisy, it won’t make it any more quiet, but at least we can add another fascinating science fact to its roll of achievements.
There’s a neighborhood in Shenzhen, China, where all the shipping outfits are. If you’re on that street at the end if the day when all of the orders are going out, the crackle of shipping tape is -really- loud.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpiFLhsU34w
(minor league baseball bubble wrap popping record)
Possibly already covered here years ago but, sellotape also makes xrays when peeled under a vacuum.
That’s also probably the tape being referred to. Packing tape, sellotape etc etc is all the same thing (though the width may vary)
Here you go – but if you thought finding the end of the roll was tough, you need to do it in a vacuum for X-rays.
https://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2011/01/18/the-physics-of-scotch-tape
Also sello tape is cellulose-based while “Scotch” tape is usually polypropylene or similar synthetic backing material (so that it doesn’t yellow as cellulosics will), and the adhesives can vary widely – I believe that the branded Scotch tapes are an acrylic formulation.
Must be a slow news week……
HAD needs more articles about vacuum tube tech….
Going back to work on my HULL 5150.
I tried this out as a kid 55 years ago – Electrical tape (the old fashioned cloth type, don’t know about the rubber/vinyl type) would definitely show a dim purple glowing line where the separation was when viewed in a darkened room. This was thought to be plasma at the time.
When I read that I immediately thought of cavitation around the blades of spinning propellers. Anybody here know if there’s a connection any deeper than a passing similarity?
If we could do the audio version of squinting, it sounds a tad like the crackle of Solid Rocket Boosters.
I’ll never forget the man from 3M doing his ESD demonstration with an ESD voltmeter. Good old sellotape hit maximum 30Kv and that was the max reading. Be very aware of how much static that stuff produces and sticking it on ICs isn’t a good idea!
Thanks for a fascinating article [Maya] but sorry, I’m going to nit-pick:
“but at least we can add another fascinating science fact to its role of achievements.”
Roll, surely, otherwise not only does the pun not work but the sentence doesn’t make sense!
Sorry for that typo. I also wasn’t going for that pun, but it would seem that I was indeed on a roll :)
I love how approachable this is for someone at home. I’d be so curious to see which tapes have the biggest effect.