When you mix cornflour and water together, the mixture doesn't know how to behave!

Packet of cornflour
Mixing bowl
Cup
Water

This experiment can be messy, so it is best to ask a grown up to help you lay some old newspaper on a table or worktop and do the experiment there.

Add 3 and a half cups of cornflour to the mixing bowl.

Gradually add 2 cups of water to the bowl, mixing it around with your hands as you go along.

Pick up some of the mixture and quickly roll it into a ball in your hands.

Put your hands in the mixture and then lift them out so that the mixture drips through your fingers.

Investigate the mixture further by punching, slapping and prodding your finger in it!

The mixture is seriously weird!

When you roll, slap and punch the mixture, it behaves like a solid. But when you let the mixture drip through your fingers, it behaves like a liquid!

When you treat the mixture roughly, it behaves like a solid because you are forcing the water molecules into the cornflour particles and it behaves like a solid. When you treat the mixture softly, the water molecules relax and the mixture flows like a liquid again.