Make Mine Slime

You can make your own cornflour slime to learn about fluids and viscosity.

What you need:

cornflour
food colouring of your choice
a bowl for mixing
water

What to do:
1. Pour some cornflour into your mixing bowl.
2. Stir in small amounts of water until the cornflour has become a very thick paste.
3. To make the slime colurful stir about five drops of food colouring into the mixture.
4. Stir your slime slowly, this shouldn't be hard to do.
6. Stir your slime as fast as you can.
7. This should be almost impossible.
8. Now punch your slime hard and fast.
9. It should feel like you're punching a solid.

What's happening:


Anything that flows is called a fluid. This means liquids are fluids. Fluids like water which flow easily are said to have low viscosity, whereas fluids like cold honey which do not flow so easily are said to have a high viscosity. Cornflour slime is a special type of fluid that doesn't follow the usual rules of fluid behaviour. When a pressure is applied to slime, its viscosity increases and the cornflour slime becomes thicker. At a certain point, slime actually seems to lose its flow and behave like a solid. Cornflour slime is an example of a sheer-thickening fluid.

We have honey, slime, tea, golden syrup, coke, milk, whipped cream, juice, tomato sauce, jam, water, yougurt

High viscosity

slime
honey
yogurt
golden syrup
tomato sauce
jam
whipped cream

Low viscosity

water
tea
milk
juice
coke

High to low viscosity

ice
chocolate
icy - pole

low to high viscosity

water
egg
mud