Tag Archives: viscosity

Non-newtonian fluids.

Playing with cornstarch and water.

The other day my mom and I played with cornstarch and water. I have always been wanting to experiment more with non-newtonian fluids, and then I had found the perfect support team to film movies of people sinking into quicksand:

Sadly, it turns out that while he does sink slowly, it doesn’t look nearly as impressive as I had hoped, even though the quicksand has a sickly green color. (Doesn’t food coloring make everything better???)

But small drawbacks have never kept us from playing, so watch the movie below to see how the cornstach-water mixture is clearly a fluid but on the other hand can be cut with a knife. Fascinating. Get thee some cornstarch and start playing!

And guys, I am wondering. Would you rather read more about the science behind the experiments, or are you more interested in just seeing the experiments and getting ideas of what you would like to try yourself? Please let me know!