Materials:
Container 1 (4 cup capacity)
1 1/2 cups warm water
2 cups white glue
food coloring, a few drops
Container 2
1 1/3 cups warm water
3 teaspoons borax
This version is a lot of flubber, you may wish to reduce
the amounts.
To do and notice:
1. Mix the ingredients in each container thoroughly.
What do they look like? How are they different?
2. Pour container 2 into container 1. Gently lift
and turn
The mixture until only
about a tablespoon of liquid is
Left. What do you
see? What does it feel like?
The flubber will be sticky
for a moment or two. Let
The excess liquid drip
off and the flubber will be ready.
What happens to flubber when…
It is stretched?
It is rolled into a ball and bounced?
It is stretched over the opening of a jar?
An object (golf ball, etc.), is rolled on it?
A closer look:
Flubber is a polymer made by a chemical reaction.
Polymers are very long
Chains of repeating units. When the two solutions
are combined, polyvinyl accetate chains (a polymer from the white glue)
are linked together in a 3 dimensional
Arrangement by borate ions ( from the Borax) and other
chemical bonds. This produces the thick, sticky polymer called Flubber.
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