Oobleck

Have you ever heard of "Oobleck" or "Ooze"? No? I didn't know about it for a long time either. However, a couple  of summers ago I worked in a science camp for kids in Canada and there I first heard of it. It is one of the non-newtonian fluids, meaning it can be both solid and liquid. You can most easily make it at home as all needed is water and starch. When you mix it in the right ration (1 cup of water with 1.5 to 2 cups of starch) you get a gooey fluid also called "Oobleck" or "Ooze".

At first it looks liquid but as soon as you punch it or ably force or strength to it it becomes solid. This is due to the fact that, with the impulse, the starch molecules close around the water and it becomes solid. However, as soon as the impulse vanishes again the fluid turns back into liquid.

It is a very simple experiment but it is a lot of fun as you can do some nice tricks with it. One of these tricks is putting it on a subwoofer and making it dance this way. You can even run over it as long as you just kick the fluid hard enough. Below you will find some videos that demonstrating this effect.

I hope you enjoyed the videos and try it out yourselves. If you do, let me know how it worked out. :)