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Slime Laboratory Kit Facts and Cool Details

Modern slimes started around 1920 as by-products of industrial chemistry research. We think slime is more than a mere by-product but a wonderful thing for creative and analytical thinking; gosh, it's a main focus of our research! The Slime has counter intuitive effects. This means to a thinking person, it seems to break the rules of science. Squeeze it into a ball, drop it and it could shatter like glass. Then watch the pieces as they melt into little puddles in front of your eyes. It feels wet – but your hands are left dry! We hope it makes you ask yourself, "Why and how and what in the world?" We hope you can gross out your friends with it so they want to find out how and why, too.

The Chemistry

Our kit contains clear Poly Vinyl Alcohol solution (PVOH) and white Poly Vinyl Acetate (PVA) solution. We have chosen solutions with very long molecules that can make clear or opaque slimes that are runny or bouncy, and everything in between. In solution, the molecules are like long, snaky, slippery chains of beads flopping about in water.
Borax, or sodium tetra borate, seen at right, solution has the effect of creating cross links or cross bonding between the sliding chains. The more links the firmer and bouncier the ooze. Less links – the more drippy the ooze.
Cool Ooze: next time you mix borax with the PVOH, feel the beaker and then feel the new ooze in your hand. It is colder than it started! The reaction is endothermic, which means that the reaction absorbs heat.

THE PHYSICS

When you squeeze cross bonded PVOH, it seems to need time for the bonded molecules to slide past one another. Slow pressure – it oozes smoothly. But with a sudden force it seems the bonds just break all at once; the gel shatters. Your polymer slime is an example of a non-Newtonian fluid, meaning it's viscosity, or runniness, varies with the force you put on it. The harder you push the slower it runs!
The Gold Pigment is a little discovery of ours. It seems to look like liquid gold when you smooth out the ooze. Try this: if you snap the ooze open, the inside does not look like gold at all, but if you smooth the broken end, it instantly goes gold again! And we don't know why. Do you have any theories, my WILD Scientist friend?
If you bury a googly eye under a blob of ooze, in a few hours the googly eye will be floating on the top. Is it because the googly eye is less dense than the non-Newtonian fluid in which you put it?

A WILD Career
Now, you may be thinking what has this to do with real life science? Our answer: oodles! (Or "oozles," if you want to be punny.) The science of polymers is part of all plastics, nearly all make-up and cosmetic products, glues, paints, some foods, and more. From artificial skin to racing car bodies – its all polymers. Rheologists, or scientists who study fluid mechanics, help make smoother yogurt, faster running hoses, slower dripping cream, and artificial blood vessels that don't clog up. Believe it or not, they can even design better road systems to avoid traffic jams. So, go play with your slime, and maybe one day your friends will thank you for making their drive to work a bit more pleasant!

Additional Experiments

We think our ooze feels slimier before rain or a thunderstorm. What do you think? How can you test?
Ooze Vibrations: make a long sausage out of your slime and hold it near your ear. Flick the end with a finger. We can hear a deep bell like sound. Pastry and "Play Dough" just do not sound as good! We have no idea why. Can you help?
Make a flat clear ooze puddle. Put one drop of each color on the puddle, so the drops are far apart. Guess what might happen. Then, come back after an hour or two to find out if you were right.
Eggs over Oozy: someone sent us pictures of a realistic Slime Fried Egg and bouncing Ooze Pizza. Try to re-create their inedible culinary masterpiece.

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