When you think of slime, do you imagine slugs, snails, and puppy
kisses? Or does the science fiction film "The Blob" come to mind? Any way
you picture it, slime is definitely slippery, slithery, and just plain icky. Which
is a perfect forum for learning real science. But which ingredients work in
making a truly slimy concoction, and why do they work? Here's a closer look
at the real thing.
Imagine a plate of spaghetti pasta. The noodles slide around and don't
clump together, just like the long chains of molecules (called polymers) that
make up slime. They slide around without getting tangled up. The pasta by
itself, fresh from the boiling water, doesn't really hold together until you put
the sauce on, right? Slime works the same way.
Long, spaghetti-like chains of molecules don't clump together until
you add the sauce – something to cross-link the molecules strands together.
In the case of the first slime (Bouncy Putty), the borax-water mixture is the "spaghetti" (long chain of molecules), and the "sauce" (cross-linking agent)
is the glue-water mixture. You need both in order to create a slime worthy
of Hollywood filmmakers. Let's give it a try.
Bouncy Putty Slime
Combine ½ cup water with one teaspoon of Borax in a
cup and stir with a popsicle stick. In another cup, mix equal parts white
glue and water. Add in a glob of glue mixture to the borax. Stir for one
second with a popsicle stick, then quickly pull the putty out of cup and play
with it until it dries enough to bounce on table (3-5 minutes). Pick up an
imprint from a textured surface or print from a newspaper, bounce and
watch it stick, snap it apart quickly and ooze apart slowly…
Mucus Slime
Pour 1 tablespoon polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) into a cup. In a
fresh cup, mix 1 tablespoon of water with 1 teaspoon of borax. Measure ¼
to ½ teaspoon of borax solution into the PVA cup and stir.
Starch Slime
Measure 1 tablespoon of liquid starch into paper cup. Stir in
glob of glue mixture (equal parts of white glue and water), stir for a second.
Pull it all out and play with it until it dries in hands. How is this different
from Bouncy Putty?
Sewer Sneeze Slime
Fill a cup with 7 tablespoons of cold water. Stir in
1/4 teaspoon of guar gum, stir with a popsicle stick 10 times and stop,
leaving the stick in. Cautiously dip a pinky into the cup, then rub it in their
fingers. Does it smell? Leave it for 2 minutes to thicken before adding this
final ingredient: ½ teaspoon of the Borax Solution (Borax Solution: 1
teaspoon borax in one tablespoon water). Stir and it will form a gel that
looks like real boogers!
Corny Slime
Fill a large bowl with two cups of cold water. Mix in one cup of
cornstarch. The faster you stir, the harder it is to stir. Go s l o w l y. Grab
it with your hand – it should form a hard ball that you can't squish. When
you relax your grip, the ball should melt and drip between your fingers as if
liquid. If this is not what's happening for you, adjust the amounts of
cornstarch and water you have in your bowl.
Squishy Slime
Mix 1 cup sugar, 12 cups water, and 3 cups cornstarch in a
saucepan. Stir constantly until thickened, about 5 minutes. Place a glop in
each of several bowls along with drops of food coloring in each. Place a
dollop of each color into a plastic sandwich bad and zip it shut. You can
squish and squeeze without getting your hands slimy.
Gelatinous Slime
Combine two cups cold water with one cup cornstarch or
white flour. Cook in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until boiling.
When thickened, remove from heat, let cool, add food coloring, and serve.
Amoeba Slime
This is always the biggest hit at the birthday party. After
kids are finished making the above slimes, I leave out all the ingredients and
ask them to make the best slime ever. Stand back and get ready with a
hose. Best done outdoors. Kids always get to take home samples in empty
film canisters (photo below).
Kitchen Wizard Chemical Reactions
You can produce a number of fun
chemical reactions with things you already have: a raw potato slice and
hydrogen peroxide; chalk and vinegar; baking soda and vinegar; Alka-
Seltzer and water; raisins and 7-Up.
TIP: Never polish your tarnished silver-plated silverware again by safely
dipping it in a self-polishing solution in a saucepan lined with aluminum foil heating a solution of water, one teaspoon of baking soda and one teaspoon
salt.
Since 1996, Aurora Lipper has been helping
families learn science. As a pilot,
astronomer, engineer, rocket scientist, and
university instructor, she can build laser
light shows from tupperware and working
radios from toilet paper.
Build a flying machine that shouldn't be able to fly at all
...and much more!
Your kids will be so jazzed about science that they'll be begging to learn more. Click here to get the Free Science Experiment Guide. This eBook download comes bundled with the Rocket Scientist Newsletter, which includes a weekly free science experiment in your email box.
Cool science experiments! Did you know that you can bend light to make objects disappear? Make the fourth state of matter in your microwave? Build a speaker from a plate? You can do all these activities and more in our free Science Guide!
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