The scaling behavior of a self-affine fractal interface in a paper tearing experiment

The scaling behavior of a self-affine fractal interface is examined in a paper tearing experiment. A sheet of heavy duty construction paper, 30 cm x 23 cm, is torn lengthwise across the grain of the paper, and the tear line is scanned and digitized to obtain the interface height h(x) as a function of position x. From these, the interface width w(L) is determined as a function of system size L. It is found that the interface width scales with system size L as w(L) similar to L-alpha, with alpha = 0.66 +/- 0.02. The result is assessed in comparison with other relevant experimental and theoretical results.