MAKE A PLASTIC
Hypothesis: We’re using nail polish remover which is diluted acetone, so we’re hoping that the Styrofoam will still dissolve. However, we’re afraid that it won’t, and that we can’t let the rest of the liquid evaporate out of the nail polish remover and leave more concentrated acetone behind because we’ve found from our research that acetone evaporates fairly quickly. To be honest, we think the Styrofoam (even if we break it up into tiny, little balls) will just float around at the top. * sigh * However, if it works, we don’t want to wait 12 hours for it to harden, so we’ve found that chilling a polymer makes it more brittle, and because brittle things are not malleable, we think that by chilling it (and risking shattering) that it will harden faster.
Results: We took a styrofoam ball that was the flakey styrofoam vs. the connected-balls styrofoam and crumbled it into even smaller flakes which we dropped into the nail polish remover. Ok, so I had added the dye while the styrofoam was hopefully dissolving, but because of that, it was harder to see the already-hard-to-tell-if-it-was-dissolving styrofoam! If it was dissolving, it was too slow to watch or notice; it was one of those things that you look back every now and then to see if you note a change. In the end, we crumbled the rest of the small, styrofoam ball into the nail polish, left it to sit overnight, and crossed our fingers. * Crosses fingers * Will it make be alright? We'll know in the morning.
The Next Morning: We just checked our "plastic" and all it is looking like is disgusting, green, melted slushy. We THINK that maybe SOME of the TINY pieces MAY have dissolved, but even if that were true, more than 12 hours have passed and the plastic should have "cured" or hardened. Oh, well, maybe it was a good thing it didn't actually work because if it did, we hadn't a plan on how to get the plastic out of the jar if it had solidified in the jar and possibly to the jar.
BOUNCY BALL
Hypothesis: If we add cornstarch to a lab we have already preformed, the What is a Polymer Lab, then the ball will be bouncier then the first. We think that the cornstarch will act as a tighter bonding agent. The borax will first bond the monomers, then the cornstarch will act like a strengthener to the borax. Making the bond between the monomers stronger and tighter giving more of a bounce.
Results: FAIL! FAILFAILFAIL! We FAIL! We did this TWICE, and still we did not get the results we wanted! The first time, it turned out to be dry, wouldn't stick to itself, and when we tried dipping it into the Borax solution again, it did bupkis. When we tried running it under water to moisten it or soften it, the water made it even more dry! We guessed the problem might have been due to one of two things: 1.) we added the dye after the Borax solution was mixed with the glue and cornstarch instead of to the Borax solution. 2.) We hadn't let the Borax solution mixed with the glue and cornstarch sit for 10-15 seconds. We had ten more minutes left of testing, so we decided to repeat the experiment. Cramming a retest in ten minutes = BAD IDEA! Time was running out and we had to clean everything out. So while Amber was cleaning _____, I was re-making the Borax solution (adding the dye this time!). We added the glue and the cornstarch and, for being in a rush, we were doing pretty good! But then I was in a bit of a tizzy over time, I accidentally read "add 1 tsp. Borax to the Ball Mixture" so I had added Borax. Truth was, it told me to add 1 tsp. of Borax SOLUTION! We tried to shake out as much as we could, and we got most of it out, but the Borax had fallen on the glue and (because glue is adhesive) some of the Borax stuck. Shocker. We really didn't have time to be doing our second test, anyway, so there was no way in heck we would have time for a third test, so we continued on with our second. We waited 15 seconds after adding the Borax solution. Our second test (despite my mess-up) turned out better than our first test. It was stickier (and more evenly green) and more malleable and would stay in a ball-shape. However, that is not to say that our test was a success. The test is called BOUNCY ball. Bouncy, our ball was not. I had an extra styrofoam ball that bounced higher than our second test! We hadn't had time for the bounce test, but I'd guesstimate it to be around 5 cm. It was NOT a bouncy ball by my classification! Not by any classification, I think! However, neither of our tests were as messy as Marissa's. Her group hadn't added as much cornstarch as we did, and theirs turned out to be similar to tar (in color and stickiness--it was VERY sticky). So perhaps we should add less cornstarch next time and find a happy medium between Marissa's super-sticky and our dry-doughy and get an acceptable semi-bouncy ball.
(Our two balls.
The first test that we couldn't get to stay in a shape is on top
while the second that wouldn't bouncy to save its life--not that either of them would bounce--is on the bottom)
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