• Question: is science putty a solid or a liqued

    Asked by joneser02 to Carol, John, Philip, Rebecca on 4 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Carol White

      Carol White answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      Good question!

      I’d say it’s a solid.

      It acts as a liquid over a long time period, so when you leave it starts to melt down a bit and “flow”. But it’s mostly what we call an “elastic solid” over a short time period.

      I’m not entirely sure though, because I’ve heard it called a “viscoelastic liquid”.. which is a liquid by name!

      I hope John the engineer will be more use 🙂

    • Photo: John Welford

      John Welford answered on 4 Jul 2012:

      I think “science putty” is the same thing as “silly putty” which means it is technically a “Non-Newtonian Fluid”. This means its “viscosity” is not fixed.

      Viscosity is how much resistance a fluid has to moving (or being moved). This affects how difficult it is to stir, how fast something sinks through it or how quickly it pours. For a “Newtonian” fluid the viscosity will only change with temperature and pressure. But for a “Non-Newtonian” fluid the viscosity can change with other things, like time or the amount of force you are putting in.

      Lots of fluids are Non-Newtonian, like custard, paint and even blood. This means that some really cool things happen with them.

      For example you can run on custard:

      Or if you bounce them at different frequencies some really weird stuff happens:

      (there are loads of of videos like this on youtube if you want to see more!)

      So it really depends what you’re doing with it as to what it behaves like, but if I had to decide I would say a liquid.

    • Photo: Philip Glasson

      Philip Glasson answered on 6 Jul 2012:

      Its a suspension !

      Solid floating in Liquid
      or liquid in a solid

      just depends on the Concentration !! 🙂

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