January 5, 2006

Fifty pounds of silly putty...

It's so simple that it's brilliant... fifty pounds of silly putty dropped from a roof - with video recording why happened.

Genius...
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3 comments:

  1. G-Rob1/5/06, 9:15 AM

    So, Mr. Chem Guy, can you help me understand why that happened? Why did it shatter like that? Was the putty not malleable enough to simply absorb the force of the impact, thus spreading it onto the concrete?

    Now that I think of it, Silly Putty bounces, so it doesn't absorb much of the energy during a drop like that. Instead, it loses a little in heat and sound (during the bounce itself) plus becomes slightly misshapen but that's all. The rest of the energy is conserved when it bounces.

    At what point (in terms of weight) does a blob of Dilatant Compound no longer bounce but smash apart? Clearly somewhere between a few ounces (based on what is in the egg) and 50 lbs.

    Thoughts?

    ReplyDelete
  2. G-Rob1/5/06, 9:28 AM

    I just found this link about why dilatant compound shatters like that....

    http://www.puttyworld.com/watchitshatter.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. PHSChemGuy1/6/06, 4:29 AM

    Glad I could be of assistance, G...

    ReplyDelete