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Bouncy Putty
Miscellaneous
A bouncy ball, power ball or super ball is a ball which rebounds proportionally to the amount of force used when thrown at a hard surface. A typical bouncy ball can keep around 80% of its kinetic energy in one rebound. (Wikipedia)
SuperBalls are extremely elastic balls and are made of a material which contains the synthetic rubber polymer polybutadiene.
You can make your own bouncing ball from a polymer.
Some glues contain the polymer polyvinyl acetate (PVA), which cross-links to itself when it reacts with borax.
Ingredients
- Borax ***Warning
- White glue
- Cornstarch (Maizena)
- Food colouring
- Warm water
- 2 small containers and skewers to stir with.
Method
- Pour 2 tablespoons of warm water and a ½ teaspoon borax powder into a small container. Stir the mixture to dissolve the borax.
- Add a drop of food colouring to the solution to get the desired colour.
- Pour ½ tablespoon of glue into another small container, add 2,5 ml (½ teaspoon) of cornstarc to the glue and mix well.
- Add 1 ml (¼ teaspoon) of the borax solution - DO NOT STIR but count to 10!to allow the ingredients to interact on their own
- Now stir to mix ingredients well. Once the mixture becomes impossible to stir, take it our of the cup and start moulding the ball with your hands.
- The ball will start out sticky and messy, but will solidify as you knead it. Once the ball is no longer sticky, go ahead and bounce it!
- Store your bouncy ball in a plastic bag to prevent it drying out.
Have fun!
Please note that Borax (Sodium Borax) is toxic.
"Ingestion of 5 to 10 g by young children can cause severe vomiting, diarrhoea, shock and death"
(The Merck Index. 1976. p. 1110)
Original recipe from the MTN Sciencentre, Cape Town.