“Ooblek”. My science teacher, Mr. Horton said. “Real messy stuff. Don’t get it on your clothes, that’s all I ask. I want you guys to experiment with the Ooblek, and answer one question,” I was sure I could answer any question that Mr. Horton threw at me, and if not, I’ll simply do a quick google search.

“Is the Ooblek a liquid, or a solid?”

A liquid that can become a solid. I was skeptical at first. I’ve heard of stories of a liquid that could suddenly change it’s physical state, although I’ve never actually seen such a thing. Other kids say they have, but I haven’t. They’re all baffled at me. Our teacher, Mr. Horton, put all of us into groups of four. With me was Juliana, my partner for my last lab, TJ, and Patrick. Mr. Horton gave each group of four one bag of cornstarch. Patrick grabbed a graduated cylinder and poured exactly 45ml of water into the bag. Patrick violently shook the bag to mix the contents before setting it on the ground. Before we poured the substance onto the table, we poked it while it was inside the bag. I couldn’t say I was amazed at first. It certainly looked like a liquid. I poked at it, and sure enough, it reacted like a liquid, flowing away from my finger. TJ dived right in, and slammed the bag.

It didn’t move.

Kay, that’s a bit odd. We poured it out of the bag and onto the table. It had the appearance of pancake mix. I know the sight of pancake mix well, for my dad makes it for breakfast at least every other week. We were all looking at each other, wondering who would touch it first. I took one for the team, and poked at it. It was cold, and, gooey (I know “gooey” is a terrible word to describe something, but just go with it, please). I immediately tried to pull my finger away, but the “liquid” held my finger there for a second. So it was sticky too. Eventually, all of us started poking at it. I learned three things about it.

1. If you poke it slowly, it’s a liquid.
2. If you poke at it really quickly, it hardens up on you.
3. It’s insanely hard to get off of your clothes (One of my friends was such a victim, getting Ooblek on her black pants).

We all ended up getting our hands covered in it. I tried to make a ball from th Eventually I smelled it, and frankly, it smelled disgusting. I have a weak stomach so eventually I had to stop my fun with the Ooblek, cause my lunch was threatening to come up.

So I’ve written all of this, but now, I need to come to a conclusion. Is “Ooblek” a solid? Or a liquid? I believe that can be either a solid, or a liquid. “But Alex, that’s cheating! You need to pick one!” I can hear people say that now. Well, Ooblek is a mixture of a solid (Cornstarch) and a liquid (Water). In the beginning, when we mixed the two together, it was mainly a liquid. But if we hit it fast enough, it seemed solid. It’s simply a liquid with solid characteristics.

But later, when we were playing with it, I noticed something. TJ had a handful of Ooblek, and said that he wanted more water so he could keep moulding his Ooblek. That’s when I realized something. The Ooblek is made up of cornstarch and water, but you need the water to keep on using the Ooblek. Eventually, if you keep playing with the Ooblek, the water will disappear, then you’re only left with wet cornstarch. And what is cornstarch?

A SOLID.

So hopefully, this explains my reasoning on why I think that Ooblek is a solid and a liquid. I want to clarify that I’m not saying that Ooblek is both, I’m saying that Ooblek can switch between the two physical states.

Simple. As. That.

– Alex