Scientists are coming up with new inventions all the time—things that don’t make sense right away but work just the same. Of these inventions is a liquid that can act like a solid!
It’s hard to understand how something like that is possible—two things that seem opposite—hard and soft—occurring at the same time. Sometime in the past, you have probably experienced a substance that has similar qualities. Some people call it Goop or Oobleck, but it’s made of cornstarch and water. And as crazy as it seems, as hard as it is to understand, it “is what it is”—hard and soft at the same time.
- What are your thoughts about how a substance can be hard and soft at the same time? (Answers will vary.)
Oobleck is a non-Newtonian fluid. Let’s learn a little bit more about it here:
Share this short video with your teens [0:40]: Oobleck Explained in 40 Seconds – Try This at Home!
- How crazy is that? A liquid that can act like a solid! Can you think of other examples of things that seem impossible but are still true? (Allow students to share any examples that they have. Here are a few they may or may not know: Alaska is the most eastern, northern, and western state in the U.S. Seems impossible, but because the Aleutian Islands stretch from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere crossing the 180° line of longitude, Alaska is all of those things at the same time. Another example: A typical cloud weighs around 1.1 million pounds—how can something so heavy float in the sky?)
Even though there are things around us that seem unexplainable, they are still true. Two things can be true at the same time even though it boggles our minds. Today we are going to talk about something else that seems impossible: 1 + 1 + 1 = 1.