Conclusion Blog

What in the World?

Today during class, we did a plasticity experiment. The purpose for this experiment was to see how the mantle involves plasticity. Plasticity is being able to have many changes in shape. There are many forms of plasticity. What we did was take about twenty milliliters of water and add it to cornstarch. We also added some green food coloring! Afterwards, we had to stir the mixture until it is absolutely difficult to stir. The teacher had said that if we don’t put the correct amount of water into the mixture, then it will not come out right. Next, we put small amount of the mixture onto our hands. It felt gooey, slimy and definitely weird. It feels so liquid-like. After we had some of the green mixture on our hands, we rolled it into a ball. Since there was pressure on the mixture, it stayed as a solid. Once you had stopped rolling the ball, it started dripping down in your hand. That was the most fascinating, but weird part. Unfortunately, if you rolled it with too much pressure, then it would crumble and become powder. So, I found out that cornstarch + water = a solid with properties of a liquid. Anyways, when you put your finger into the mixture for one moment, there is no change. As opposed to that, if you keep your finger on the mixture for longer, your finger sinks in. This mixture of cornstarch and water is similar to the earth’s mantle, because, the earth’s mantle acts like the way the mixture is behaving. The heat and pressure that comes from the earths crust “molds” the mantle into a solid. Similarly, the pressure and heat that comes from the hands keep the mixture as a solid.

I learned a lot from this experiment. The most important thing I learned was that cornstarch and water together will create a gooey mixture that has plasticity. Another thing I learned was that there are many forms of plasticity. For example, neuroplasticity, this is the ability of the brain to change with learning. All in all, I enjoyed doing this gooey but interesting experiment.