Comments on: Amazing Liquid - Cornstarch

By: whatever

whatever — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:58:33 +0000

it’s called oobleck. we learned about it in a science course. read the dr. seuss book bartholomew and the oobleck.

By: High T3ch » Fano Flow - Non-Newtonian Fluids Defying Gravity

High T3ch » Fano Flow - Non-Newtonian Fluids Defying Gravity — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:42:17 +0000

[...] way to gravity, we have seen previously seen some pretty strange liquids on here such as “cornstarch“, “mixed fluids“, “superfluids liquid helium“, “water flowing [...]

By: Walking on water and fire « John Wills Lloyd

Walking on water and fire « John Wills Lloyd — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 11:42:56 +0000

[...] Brian Jones’ Little Shop of Physics, Chris Chiaverina on Arbor Scientific, and especially, HighT3ch (aliens alive!) for further [...]

By: critter

critter — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 21:22:19 +0000

Newtonian materials exhibit linear stress vs strain behavior (water). Stuff like cornstarch in water is dilatent, meaning that the stress increases with strain. So you try to push it harder it resists and begins to behave like a solid. Pick up a glob of cornstarch and water and throw it at your brother if you doubt it. (Hit him on the arm, not his head.)

By: Grumbles

Grumbles — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 17:05:52 +0000

The cornstarch mixture is a non-newtonian fluid, i.e. it’s a fluid that doesn’t behave like a fluid should. The vibrations aren’t neccessary for it to behave oddly, however, they add a cool effect. If you were to have a large pool of the stuff, you could run across it without sinking at all. Of course, you would have to run: it only acts like a solid when stress is applied. If you were to walk or stand there, you’d sink as if it were water. Very slimy water.

By: High T3ch Magazine

High T3ch Magazine — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 16:51:15 +0000

[...] Remember “Amazing Liquid Cornstarch“? This time we have a living proof that walking on water could actually be done, with some modification which you could consider as cheating. They really are walking on a liquid! VIDEO-> [...]

By: James King

James King — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 06:49:49 +0000

CornStarch is reactive to pressure, if you keep it moving in your hands it’s solid like putty, if you stop moving it it returns to liquid. You can bounce off a bucket of it, but standing on it you will sink. The vibrations cause standing waves which are pressurised areas, hence the fingers that are produced. It’s funky stuff

By: iD

iD — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 06:12:08 +0000

5 year olds have been doing this for years:
http://www.kinderteacher.com/oobleck.htm
these guys just recorded it on film, and applied some fancy thousand-dollar paintcan shaker.
:shrug:

By: Toby

Toby — Fri, 19 May 2006 00:02:09 +0000

That would be a great way to mess with your friends heads, especially in a dorm room or something.
I know, I’m slightly immature, but still!

By: MistaPrimeMinista

MistaPrimeMinista — Thu, 11 May 2006 03:24:28 +0000

Its good to know !! Im so ignorant about this

By: Uncout

Uncout — Wed, 10 May 2006 22:52:03 +0000

Cornstarch is a type of non newtonian liquid, my guess is that the effect is due to this. for those who dont know, a non newtonian liquid is liquid when moved gently, but solid when impacted hard

By: gusto5

gusto5 — Tue, 09 May 2006 05:47:13 +0000

well, with my limited insight, i will guess that by changing the way the liquid vibrates, you’ve changed the structure that the molecules are bonded in. It’s sort of like boiling water. Water changes in to gas form because you speed up the molecules with heat. I suppose a similar procedure is being done with the faraday waves.

By: MistaPrimeMinista

MistaPrimeMinista — Mon, 08 May 2006 14:32:36 +0000

Thank you for your comment.
Your video is impressive too, great job !

By: thr3shold

thr3shold — Mon, 08 May 2006 14:13:00 +0000

This is actually quite old and I reproduced it and took a webcam vid of it, though because the webcam sucked, so did the video, but you can see what’s going on.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyzUGRr1OJs