Testing Materials Through Time: A Physics Trip to Kirkaldy Works

On Tuesday January 13th, our Y12 and Y13 Physics students visited Kirkaldy Testing Works, just off London’s South Bank as part of our Materials topic. Joining us were the Physics students from Sydenham High School for a GDST day out. We learned about the history of materials testing and got to use a variety of testing techniques and machines, including a 100-year-old device originally designed to test parachute strapping. We measured the Youngs Modulus of packaging straps using unusual units. We’re told inches and pounds are units that people used in the past!