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50lbs of Silly Putty goes splat

Thanks! I think it was worth the bit of time it takes to watch the video, even if it's not as dramatic as it could be if the laws of physics were different. I'm also glad to know ahead of time so I don't have to spend the money and time trying it myself.
 
Its not "hard".

It is a round ball they dropped, and if you watch closely it did bounce and come apart with a smack.

I think it needed to be kneaded so all the air came out and it was more like a superball than a haphazard sphere.
 
After G said:
How'd it get so hard? Doesn't Silly Putty bounce?
Click to expand...

That's what makes it silly!

It might have bounced a little if dropped from 5 feet or so, but it's not a solid, it's a dense liquid. A 50 lb. ball just sitting on the ground would start to flatten on the bottom. You could slowly push your fist into it, but the harder you hit it, the more resistant it gets as the putty can't deform fast enough to accommodate the shape change. In a small ball, you're not deforming a lot of material, and it "bounces" back to shape via the resistance. In a big ball, you're asking a large amount of material to move relative to the parts around it very quickly. They can't do it because of the viscous friction, yet the energy has to go somewhere, so it breaks (rips) everything apart in order to get the transfer it needs. If the putty was more liquid, possibly even due to heating it up (not sure how that works with Silly Putty), then it could move quicker and might either flatten and just sit there or bounce (a little- 50 lbs. is a lot to move and energy will be lost).
 
Similar to when you mix cornstarch and water together.

Push your finger in slowly and it just oozes in; do it quickly and it pushes back.
 
iGary said:
Similar to when you mix cornstarch and water together.

Push your finger in slowly and it just oozes in; do it quickly and it pushes back.
Click to expand...

Oh I use to be able to spend hours playing with that stuff.:cool:


That was a bit disappointing I was almost positive there was going to be a giant sheet of putty, not 100's of peices.
 
iGary said:
Similar to when you mix cornstarch and water together.

Push your finger in slowly and it just oozes in; do it quickly and it pushes back.
Click to expand...
we got bored one weekend and we made an entire pool of this stuff

we swam around in it and watched family guy.

kinda a bored weekend.
 
That was only ok, the silly putty didn't go splat, though - it bounced and cracked....

Play Dough on the other hand - and I might have to do this, since you can make your own with cornstarch and water (the recipe is on the web somewhere). That would go splat :D

D
 
Mr. Anderson said:
That was only ok, the silly putty didn't go splat, though - it bounced and cracked....

Play Dough on the other hand - and I might have to do this, since you can make your own with cornstarch and water (the recipe is on the web somewhere). That would go splat :D

D
Click to expand...

Perfect first rendering project for your Quad. :D
 
I dropped a frozen raw egg from an 8 story bldg. It was more interesting than the silly putty.

It is also instructive to drop a light bulb onto concrete from a height of 4 feet. Hold it by the glass so that the contacts are facing down.
 
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