Silly
Putty
Introduction:
The history of silly putty is quite amusing. In 1943 James
Wright, an engineer, was attempting to create a synthetic rubber.
He was unable to achieve the properties he was looking for
and put his creation (later to be called silly putty) on the
shelf as a failure. A few years later, a salesman for the Dow
Corning Corporation was using the putty to entertain some customers.
One of his customers became intrigued with the putty and saw
that it had potential as a new toy. In 1957, after being endorsed
on the "Howdy Doody Show", silly putty became a toy
fad. Recently new uses such as a grip strengthener and as an
art medium have been developed. Silly putt even went into space
on the Apollo 8 mission.
The polymers in silly putty have covalent
bonds within the molecules, but hydrogen bonds between the
molecules. The hydrogen bonds are easily broken. When small
amounts of stress are slowly applied to the putty, only a
few bonds are broken and the putty "flows".
When larger amounts of stress are applied quickly, there are
many hydrogen bonds that break, causing the putty to break
or tear.
Materials:
- Large flask of 55% Elmer's glue solution
in water
- Large flask of 16% sodium borate
- Small styrofoam
or Dixie cups
- Wooden stir sticks
- Food coloring
- Zip lock bags
Procedure:
The Elmer's glue solution and the sodium borate are mixed
in a 4:1 ratio. The procedure can be followed from the
slime procedure above.
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