Let's make slime!
Aim: what are you going to do?
You are going to make slime using cornflour to produce something called a non-Newtonian fluid. A non-Newtonian fluid is a substance which has properties of a liquid and a solid. This means it can flow like a liquid, but also can have a set shape. It all depends on the amount of force you apply to it.
In this experiment, you are going to determine which mixture of ingredients used to make slime will make the most stretchiest slime.
Click on the Google Docs icon on the right to access a worksheet you could use to write your own slime experimental report. To use the Google Docs, click on the 'use template' button on the top right hand corner.
Equipment: what do you need?
Method: how are you going to do it?
Hypothesis: make a prediction
Let's experiment
It's time to get into groups of 2-3 and experiment.
Different groups will use different amounts of cornflour and shampoo to determine which combination of ingredients will produce slime which is able to stretch the most without breaking.
Before performing the experiment answer these questions:
- Do you think more cornflour or more shampoo will make the stretchiest slime and why?
- How many students in each group are there going to be?
- How much cornflour and shampoo will each group have in their mixture?
- Are there any safety issues in this experiment?
- How will you make sure each group stretches and measures the slime exactly the same way? Is this important?
Click on the Google Sheets icon on the right to see an example of how you could split the experiment up into groups, and a table you could use to record the results in. To use the Google Sheets, click on the 'use template' button on the top right hand corner.
Task:
Collect the data from all the groups and calculate the average stretch distance for each group in a column graph.
Discussion: let's analyse the results
Discussion questions:
- Was your prediction supported or not?
- What mixture produced the slime with the highest, and the lowest average stretch distance?
- What is the effect of adding more cornflour or shampoo into the slime mixture?
- What possible errors did you make while performing the experiment?
- How could you improve the experiment?
- Why is it important to perform more than one trial in an experiment?
- Why is it important to compare results collected in an experiment?
- How do you think this experiment is related to everyday life?
- Describe another experiment related to slime that you would like to perform?
What happened?
Have a look at the Fizzics education's explanation of what happened and answer the following questions.
Extension tasks
Think about other experiments you could perform with slime. Here are some examples:
- What mixture of slime produces the most stickiest slime?
- What mixture of slime oozes like a liquid most slowly?
- What mixture of slime allows you to make the tallest slime tower?
- What other liquids are there that behave differently when a force is applied?
- Make heat sensitive, colour changing slime
