Efficiency of Nitinol Wire

This lab activity focused on nitinol or muscle wires  which are shape memory alloys. These wires can be used to lift a weight up a height. Students will explore how the work performed lifting a load with the nitinol wire compares to the energy pumped into the wire by an electrical current. In this lab, the student will calculate the work required to lift the load by measuring the change in potential energy and the energy input into the wire by measuring the voltage across the wire and the current through the wire.  The time needed by the device to raise the load is also determined. The activity uses either a Pasco Probeware or a Vernier LabPro.