Rubber elasticity in the introductory thermodynamics course

An experimental set-up is described in which the temperature of a piece of rubber is measured with thin wire thermocouples. It measures and records the temperature change of the rubber as it heats and cools in response to elongation and contraction. This mechano-caloric effect arising from the entropy elasticity of rubber represents a reversible thermal process in clear distinction from most of other heat effects encountered in our daily experience where the irreversibility is inevitably involved. The demonstration experiment has been proved useful in elementary thermodynamic courses for introducing the entropy concept. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.