Science Olympiad Flight Rubber Motor Winding 2023-24

This video demonstrates rubber motor winding for a typical rubber motor for the 2023-24 Science Olympiad "Flight" Event. The motor in the demonstration is a 11.8" loop of Tan Super Sport rubber that weighs 1.49 grams including two black rubber o-rings. This motor 0581 g/in density and is equivalent to an average density strip cut to .087" wide.

Knot tying: ____________________________________________________

Although Tan Super Sport rubber band is sold in "inch widths", this is not the best measure of a rubber band motor. The best measure is average linear density (ex. grams/inch). This is simply the weight of the motor divided by the length of rubber strip that makes up the motor (ex. from above 1.49 gram motor minus o-ring weight of 0.09 grams divided by the length of rubber strip 11.8" times two plus 0.5" of rubber in the knot = 1.4g/24.1in = 0.0581 g/in. Density is best as rubber strip actually varies up up to 5% in thickness or density inch by inch over its length. So, if you measure only by the vendors published "width" you actually have as much as 5% variance between the various motors you are flying with (ex. 0.094" rubber is commonly used for SO actually ranges in density from .062 g/in to .065 g/in and a these two densities will fly your airplane dramatically different). It only takes a couple of minutes to weigh and measure motor length and calculate density.

Equations to calculate rubber motor density and maximum turns (metric version):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k75s...

Calculator for rubber motor density and maximum turns:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Download this calculator and use it on your PC or phone.

To use the calculator, enter motor loop length and weight and o-ring(s) weight (the green highlighted cells) and this "calculator" uses the above equation to determine density in grams per inch, the equivalent "width" and the number of motor turns and winder turns it will take to break the motor (and the 80%, 85%, 90% of breaking turns numbers).