If you a parent, or have to baby-sit a kid, here’s a fun activity that my friend Eric told me about, that can occupy a 3 to 6 year old for about an hour, or if you are really lucky, for longer than that!
Ingredients required:
- Cornflour (the stuff that is used for thickening gravies)
- Water
Add some cornflour from the packet into a large bowl. Add an equal amount of water to it. Stir the cornflour in very slowly. Then, add a little more water until you have something that looks like a slightly thick liquid. Stir slowly again.
If you take a spoon and very slowly put it in and raise it off, it should pour off slowly like a thick liquid. If it’s too watery, add more cornflour.
The idea is to make something that is not really a solid or a liquid (it is called a non-newtonian fluid). When force is applied, it is a solid. When no force is applied, it is a liquid.
As an example, once you have made this thing, ask your kid to punch it hard with the fist. It will not splash, it will feel like you hit a solid object! But you can pour it out like a liquid.
If you hit it with a spoon, the spoon will bounce off. But if you put the spoon in slowly, it will go in as if it is going in a liquid.
You can roll it into a ball in your hand (constantly applying pressure) and then when you stop rolling, it will melt.
Most importantly, it can be cleaned up easily by just adding more water until it becomes a liquid.
Here’s a video of someone walking across a pool full of this stuff!
Awesome post Meenakshi, that’s one hell of a way to keep the kids busy. The post is a lifesaver.