Having Fun With Everyone’s Favorite Non-Newtonian Fluid
I had never heard of oobleck, not even from Dr. Seuss, until I bought a chemistry book for my pre-teen that mentioned the sometimes-liquid and sometimes-solid properties of a mixture of cornstarch and water. We learned together, during homeschooling, that this is one type of non-Newtonian fluid, which is to say a fluid that does not behave as Sir Isaac Newton described fluids; water, for example, is a Newtonian fluid.
I am neither a chemist nor a physicist, so I will not describe here how non-Newtonian fluids work, even though I have read considerably about them. I am merely a homeschooling Dad whose curiosity was piqued by this stuff, and who is curious how far we can push our experiments.
I intend to update this list as we devise and carry out additional experiments.
Recipe
To make oobleck, slowly add water to cornstarch. That’s it. It’s ready when slow movements reshape it but rapid movements cause it to solidify and resist reshaping.
