Minerals in Action: A Fun Experiment with Borax
Making Goop
Minerals are needed, every day, to make products that we can use. For example, copper is used to make wire and gold is used in computer circuit boards. Here is a fun recipe for making GOOP! It’s rubbery, it won’t stick to your fingers, it’s gooey like slime. You can make it at home.
And you cannot make it without the help
of a mineral.
Items you will need:
--1 cup of white glue, like Elmer’s™ glue
--Warm water
--Food coloring
--Borax (not Boraxo™ soap)
--2 mixing bowls
Directions:
1. Mix 3/4 cup of warm water and 1 cup of glue. Add several drops of food coloring if desired. Set this mixture aside for later.
2. In a separate bowl, mix 4 teaspoons of borax in 1 1/3 cups of warm water. Note that you must use borax and not a product that is a mixture of borax and soap (like Boraxo™).
3. Add the glue mixture to the borax/water mixture. Do not stir. Let the two mixtures sit together for 5 minutes.
4. Pull the goop out of the water. It’s not sticky and messy. Be careful, though, to avoid getting it on your clothes, furniture or rugs. It’s a little tough getting it out of fabric. It won’t stick to your fingers, though! You can squeeze it, pull it, stretch it, and make yucky sounds with it if you squeeze it between your hands.
5. When you are done playing with it, put it in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator. It will last a long time for you!
How does this work?
Borax is a solid. To a chemist, glue is a liquid polymer. A “polymer” is a large molecule that is made up of many smaller molecules (all of which are the same) that are connected to each other. When borax and glue are combined, a chemical reaction takes place. The borax turns the glue into a polymer compound. Goop is a polymer compound. Without the borax, the glue would either be runny or would dry out and harden. Plastic bottles and rubber bands are also polymers.
Making Goop
Minerals are needed, every day, to make products that we can use. For example, copper is used to make wire and gold is used in computer circuit boards. Here is a fun recipe for making GOOP! It’s rubbery, it won’t stick to your fingers, it’s gooey like slime. You can make it at home.
And you cannot make it without the help
of a mineral.
Items you will need:
--1 cup of white glue, like Elmer’s™ glue
--Warm water
--Food coloring
--Borax (not Boraxo™ soap)
--2 mixing bowls
Directions:
1. Mix 3/4 cup of warm water and 1 cup of glue. Add several drops of food coloring if desired. Set this mixture aside for later.
2. In a separate bowl, mix 4 teaspoons of borax in 1 1/3 cups of warm water. Note that you must use borax and not a product that is a mixture of borax and soap (like Boraxo™).
3. Add the glue mixture to the borax/water mixture. Do not stir. Let the two mixtures sit together for 5 minutes.
4. Pull the goop out of the water. It’s not sticky and messy. Be careful, though, to avoid getting it on your clothes, furniture or rugs. It’s a little tough getting it out of fabric. It won’t stick to your fingers, though! You can squeeze it, pull it, stretch it, and make yucky sounds with it if you squeeze it between your hands.
5. When you are done playing with it, put it in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator. It will last a long time for you!
How does this work?
Borax is a solid. To a chemist, glue is a liquid polymer. A “polymer” is a large molecule that is made up of many smaller molecules (all of which are the same) that are connected to each other. When borax and glue are combined, a chemical reaction takes place. The borax turns the glue into a polymer compound. Goop is a polymer compound. Without the borax, the glue would either be runny or would dry out and harden. Plastic bottles and rubber bands are also polymers.
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