What you need:
Cornstarch Water
A cup
Food or poster colours (optional)
A bowl
A sound system (computer speakers work too)
A plastic sheet
What to do:
1. Measure a cup of cornstarch and toss it into the bowl.
2. Now measure out half a cup of water. Add the colour into the water and mix it.
3. Pour the water slowly into the bowl. Keep mixing with your other hand.
4. Once all the water is mixed in, pick up the mixture in your hand and press it into a ball.
5. The mixture should turn into a ball into your hand, but once you open your fingers, it should slump into liquid form again. If that doesn’t happen for you, try adjusting the amount of cornstarch and water.
6. Now, lay your speaker flat on a table, with its audio side facing up. Make sure the sound system is off.
7. Cover the face of the speaker with the plastic sheet.
8. Now pour the mixture that you just made on the sheet so that it is right over the audio mesh.
9. Switch on the music and turn up the volume.
What happens:
The goop starts to boogie (if it doesn’t just nudge it off the plastic a bit)! And with the right music, it can contort itself into some strange creepy shapes.
Why?
The goopy mix of water and cornstarch is known as ‘oobleck’. Its secret is suspension. The cornstarch doesn’t dissolve in the water: its particles just remain suspended in the water. If you let the oobleck rest, you’ll find that the cornstarch settles down at the bottom of the bowl.
Oobleck’s behaviour is dependent on pressure. When you squeeze it, you apply pressure which makes the cornstarch particles clump together. When the pressure is released, the com starch separates again. So, it behaves like a solid as well as a liquid.
The dance of the oobleck is actually sound waves moving through the mixture. In this case, lower pitch sounds make the oobleck dance around more than those at higher pitches. But you be the DJ and mix it up to find what works best!
Picture Credit : Google
