🚀 Inventions and machines 🧪 Materials and safety

Rubber

📖 In short

Rubber is a stretchy, bouncy material that stretches and then goes back to its shape. We make car and bike tires, balls, gloves, trainers and erasers from it. Some rubber is natural and comes from trees, and some is synthetic and made in factories.

🤩 Did you know?

One car has about 600 rubber parts.
Tens of thousands of products are made from rubber.
Some special rubber parts can stand temperatures from 84 below zero to 370 degrees.
Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia are among the biggest producers of natural rubber.

🔎 Find out more

🌟 From a tree!

Natural rubber comes from the rubber tree, which grows in hot countries. The farmer makes a small cut in the bark, and a milky white liquid called latex flows out, which they collect in a little cup.

🔍 Strong rubber

Natural rubber melted in heat and cracked in cold. Then the inventor Goodyear discovered that heating rubber with sulfur makes it strong and flexible in all weathers.

💡 Why is it good for you?

Rubber is flexible, waterproof, holds air and doesn't conduct electricity. So we make air-filled tires, electricians' gloves and non-slip shoes from it.