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Magnetic Slime

맑은 점액

What is a slime?

Slime is a toy product manufactured by Mattel and it was introduced in February 1976. Slimes act like both solids and liquids, so they are called non-Newtonian fluids. Simply, you can pick it up like a solid, but it also will ooze like a liquid. So it is very fun to play with it. In this science activity, we are going to make a very special slime. It is a Magnetic Slime. Sounds fun, right? Try it and make your own slime. 

 Materials

  • PVOH film (or a school glue)

  • borax powder

  • iron filings

  • cups

  • warm water

  • magnet

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 Procedures

  1. Cut PVOH film into small pieces.

  2. Pour warm water into a cup.

  3. Add PVOH pieces little by little and mix well.

  4. Add more PVOH pieces and mix.

  5. In the other cup, pour warm water and add the borax powder.

  6. Stir until the borax powder dissolves in water.

  7. Add the mixture to the first cup.

  8. Mix the PVOH film and borax solution well.

  9. When it starts to clump, take it out and make a large ball of slime.

  10. Sprinkle some iron filings on top of the slime.

  11. Knead and help the iron filings spread throughout the slime.

  12. Close your magnet to the slime. Observe what happens.

Science Behind It

Magnets cannot pull things like paper, wood, glass and plastic. That’s because they are Non-magnetic materials. Magnets are only attracted to special metals such as Iron, cobalt and nickel. Metals made of iron or that contain iron attract magnets well. I can pull the slime out without touching it. That’s because the magnet attracts the iron filings in the slime. Iron is magnetic. So any metal with iron is attracted to a magnet. But other metals, for example aluminum, copper, gold and silver, are not magnetic. They are not attracted to a magnet. 

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