The Effects of Activators on Slime
The purpose of my project is to determine whether or not different activators affect the elasticity and flexibility of slime.
This is a video of me making Borax and laundry detergent slime, as well as performing my experiments.
1080p.movRecently, there has been a slime craze taking my seventh-grade class by storm. One day, my friend Caroline and I decided to make some of this goop. Once we had contributed enough of the necessary ingredients to our mixture, Caroline decided to add the activator. When making slime, a solution of Borax and water is used to “activate” the slime; hence its name. I was amazed by how quickly the slime contracted and hardened. In the past, we had heard of laundry detergent being used as an activator instead of Borax. We began to wonder how different activators affect the qualities of slime. How would the flexibility be affected? The elasticity? The viscosity? The density? We decided to perform a series of experiments in order to answer our questions. My partner, Caroline, tested the viscosity and density of the slimes; each was made with a different activator. I tested the elasticity and flexibility of the the different slimes.
Before I could experiment, I needed to determine my hypothesis. Because laundry detergent is soupier and stretchy, I hypothesize that the slime using it as an activator will have greater flexibility. However, elasticity is the ability of a substance to return to its normal shape after being stretched; whereas flexibility is the ability of a substance to bend without breaking. Due to the previously mentioned properties of laundry detergent, I presume that after it has expanded, the slime will struggle to reform its initial shape. Slime made with Borax tends to be harder and less pliable, and will probably have more elasticity. This is why I hypothesize that slime made with Borax will be more elastic.