Slime

What you need:

• Hot water

• Borax

• Clear school glue

• 2 bowls

• 2 spoons

What you do:

1. Mix 1 cup of hot water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of Borax together until dissolved. Set this solution aside.

2. Mix 2 cups of clear school glue and 2 cups of hot water together in a plastic bowl.

3. Slowly pour the first mixture (the one with Borax) into the second mixture while stirring quickly — it will be sticky!

4. Take the mixture out of the bowl and knead it with your hands until it is no longer sticky. The more you play with it, the less sticky and more slime-like it will become!

What's the science?

Slime is created when the glue—a polymer—interacts with the Borax—a cross-linking solution. A polymer is made up of very large chains of molecules, called monomers. 

Glue’s molecules slide past each other fairly easily, which is why it is easy to pour. When combined with the Borax, the cross-linking solution, the molecules bond together in a way that makes it very difficult for them to slide past each other, therefore creating slime!