Dr. Seuss' oobleck is both a solid and a liquid

Dr. Seuss wrote a children's book entitled "Bartholomew and the Oobleck." In this book the king of Didd got angry with the weather and commissioned his royal magicians to invent new weather. The product of their magic was oobleck, which eventually took over the whole kingdom! Grab the following ingredients from the kitchen cabinet and make oobleck at home.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cup of corn starch
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1 sturdy stirring spoon
• food coloring
• 1 mixing bowl

Instructions

STEP 1: Add the desired amount of food coloring to 3/4 cup of water in a bowl.

STEP 2: Slowly add the corn starch to the water, making sure to stir in little portions of the cornstarch at a time or it will become too hard to mix properly.

STEP 3: Adjust the amount of cornstarch to reach the desired consistency. Add more corn starch to achieve a thicker mixture. Less corn starch will leave the oobleck more runny.

Explanation

Oobleck is considered a non-Newtonian fluid, which means it can exhibit properties of both a solid and a liquid. This is due to the nature of corn starch, which is a natural polymer.

KFVS12 and the Southeast Missourian are teaming up for science. Every Tuesday, you'll find an experiment from the KFVS Heartland Science Lab in the Class of 2morrow section of the Southeast Missourian. Grab the ingredients and join KFVS science reporter Jason Lindsey live on KFVS at 5 p.m. every Wednesday. More science experiences can be found at www.kfvs12.com and www.semissourian.com.