Tyler Durden (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tyler_gone) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomhigh2008-09-26 08:01 am
tyler_gone) wrote in fandomhigh2008-09-26 08:01 am
Entry tags:
Chemistry You Can Use, First Period, Friday, 9/26
For some strange reason, Tyler seemed to be in an exceptionally good mood this morning. He all but bounced into the classroom, hair still damp from the shower, and smiled at the students as they took their seats.
He didn't normally smile a lot. That was ... odd.
"Hey," he finally said, once the students were all at the lab tables. "First, my friend from last week is back on his island, so you're stuck with just me again." Which was truer than it had been in many years.
"Today we're going to be less with the big booms, more with the gross." He held up a vial of green gooey stuff, which he would play with -- stretching, and letting it drip off his hands -- for the remainder of his lecture. "This is polyvinyl slime. Technically, when you make this, what you're doing is forcing borate ions -- Borax -- to cross-link with poly chains from the polyvinyl alcohol solution. This handout does a good job of explaining all of it -- let me just go through it with you." He did.
"And now, we make goop." Talking through it, he demonstrated dissolving PVA into a solution over a Bunsen burner, letting it cool briefly, and adding in a bit of the Borax. The mixture seized into a slime. "You can also add food coloring to the PVA if you want it to be pretty colors, if that's what you're into."
Once he was done talking, he gestured at the lab tables. "And now you get to try this. Use more PVA to make it thicker, less to make it runnier. Let me know if you have questions."
He didn't normally smile a lot. That was ... odd.
"Hey," he finally said, once the students were all at the lab tables. "First, my friend from last week is back on his island, so you're stuck with just me again." Which was truer than it had been in many years.
"Today we're going to be less with the big booms, more with the gross." He held up a vial of green gooey stuff, which he would play with -- stretching, and letting it drip off his hands -- for the remainder of his lecture. "This is polyvinyl slime. Technically, when you make this, what you're doing is forcing borate ions -- Borax -- to cross-link with poly chains from the polyvinyl alcohol solution. This handout does a good job of explaining all of it -- let me just go through it with you." He did.
"And now, we make goop." Talking through it, he demonstrated dissolving PVA into a solution over a Bunsen burner, letting it cool briefly, and adding in a bit of the Borax. The mixture seized into a slime. "You can also add food coloring to the PVA if you want it to be pretty colors, if that's what you're into."
Once he was done talking, he gestured at the lab tables. "And now you get to try this. Use more PVA to make it thicker, less to make it runnier. Let me know if you have questions."