Silly Putty Research Articles

K.I.S. or M.I.S.

Once in a while I have to nag! And I'm not alone. Consider Oxford University professor Richard Dawkins: “Obscur-antism in a … subject expands to fill the vacuum of its intrinsic simplicity.” Or, comedian George Carlin (Napalm and Silly Putty, 2002): “People add extra words when they want things to sound more important than they really are.” Finally, writing guru William Zinsser (adapted from On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 25th anniversary edition, 2001)

Polymer Chemistry: Introduction to an Indispensable Science (David M. Teegarden)

If you find that chemistry is more interesting when it is taught and learned in the company of silly putty, super glue, and cat-shaped balloons, you’ll like this book a lot. Polymer Chemistry is designed for science teachers working with grades 9–12.

A Serious Look at Changeable Silly Putty

Changeable Silly Putty is a thermochromic material. It changes color due to a change in temperature. This paper describes advanced experiments designed to find the mechanism of the color change, provides a discussion of proposed mechanisms, and describes three experiments using Changeable Silly Putty that are suitable for young children.

The bounce of a ball

In this paper, the dynamics of a bouncing ball is described for several common ball types having different bounce characteristics. Results are presented for a tennis ball, a baseball, a golf ball, a superball, a steel ball bearing, a plasticene ball, and a silly putty ball. The plasticene ball was studied as an extreme case of a ball with a low coefficient of restitution (in fact zero, since the collision is totally inelastic) and the silly putty ball was studied because it has unusual elastic properties. The first three balls were studied because of their significance in the physics of sports. For each ball, a dynamic hysteresis curve is presented to show how energy is lost during and after the collision. The measurement technique is quite simple, it is suited for undergraduate laboratory experiments, and it may provide a useful method to test and approve balls for major sporting events.

DON OTHMER, CHEMICAL ENGINEERING ENTREPRENEUR, AND OTHERS WHO TOOK THE PLUNGE

Abstract Donald F. Othmer is an example of a chemical engineer entrepreneur who left his employer to make it on his own. Job stability is not guaranteed. The possibility of striking out on one's own should be part of career planning. Corporations are not generally able to exploit entrepreneurial ventures. Other examples of chemical industry entrepreneurs are the Krieble family who founded the Loctite Corporation, Peter Hodgson and Silly Putty, Bernard Baruch and Herman Frasch in sulfur, Arnold Beckman and Beckman Instruments, and Albert Bader who founded Aldrich Chemical.

Mechanical Response of Linear Viscoelastic Solids

The word “viscoelastic” is used to describe the mechanical response of materials exhibiting both the springiness associated with elastic solids and viscous flow characteristics associated with fluids. A familiar example of a material called viscoelastic is Silly PuttyTM. If a blob of Silly Putty is rolled into a ball and then dropped onto a hard surface, it will bounce like an elastic ball. If the ball is placed on a hard surface, its own weight will cause it to flow into a puddle. This behavior indicates that time is an intrinsic parameter in discussing viscoelastic response of materials. The elastic response is associated with a contact force of very short duration. The flow into a puddle occurs when forces act for a long period of time.Viscoelastic response occurs in materials such as soils, concrete, cartilage, biological tissue, and polymers. Soils and cartilage can be thought of as porous solids filled with fluid. Viscous response is due to the flow of the fluid in the pores; elastic response is due to the distortion of the porous solid.

Flow Analysis of Sheet Molding Compounds in Compression Molding

Abstract A series of experiments and a numerical simulation were carried out to investigate the flow of silly putty and sheet molding compound (SMC) at various processing conditions in compression molding. The flow resistance and the interface friction of both materials were characterized by using a squeeze flow rheometer and the ring compression test, respectively. Molding experiments were carried out on an instrumented mold and the finite element code ALPID (Analysis of Large Plastic Incremental Deformation) was used for numerical simulation. The flow front shape, temperature profile, and pressure change obtained by numerical simulation compared well with experimental results.

Structured Fluids

Water, gasoline, pancake syrup, mucus, salad oil, cornstarch-and-water paste, Silly Putty, liquid dishwashing soap, egg white, glycerin, Vaseline, ketchup, model airplane glue, paint, toothpaste—this motley list of substances seems to defy scientific classification. Water, gasoline, salad oil and glycerin are clearly liquids. The other substances, strictly speaking, are also liquids, since they all flow on the application of stress. But the name “liquid” hardly captures the variety of behavior in these substances. The substances differ from one another in their mechanical responses almost as much as they differ from solids. In the first place, they differ enormously from one another in viscosity, the quantitative measure of a liquid's flow response. Furthermore, many of them have striking properties whose description requires variables besides viscosity. Syrup becomes sticky as it dries. Liquid dishwashing soap has the same consistency as syrup, but it does not become sticky on drying. Mucus, egg white and model airplane glue are springy and rubbery. Silly Putty and cornstarch paste flow on a tilted surface but shatter like a brittle solid on sudden impact. Dishwashing soap in water easily forms masses of long-lived foam. Even the simplest flow properties of toothpaste are qualitatively unliquid-like: It comes out of its tube as a plug rather unlike an ordinary liquid, which flows fastest in the middle of the opening.

Paleontological Use for Silly Putty

A new use of the product Silly Putty, for making impressions of fossils that would otherwise be uncollectable is described. The method can also be used in the laboratory.