Today was Nantucket Elementary School’s annual Fifth Grade Egg Drop Day. NFD brings out the ladder truck, which is raised to 105 feet over the asphalt court in the playground, and each 5th grade teacher goes up the ladder and releases the egg-containing apparatuses, one at a time. The resulting splats make for good entertainment.

The rules were simple. Make something small enough to fit in a grocery bag that would protect an egg from its dive. James did not turn to the library, borrow an old Physics text, or even use Google to prepare for the project. Instead, he consulted YouTube. And came up with the idea of using Oobleck.

Oobleck is the fictional green precipitation invented by children’s author Dr. Seuss in the book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. More recently, it has been used to describe non-Newtonian fluid made from Cornstarch and water.

A non-Newtonian fluid is a fluid that varies its viscosity according to the shear stress that it is under. Hold it in your hands and it is a liquid and runs through your fingers like milk. But stab the surface with a spoon and it acts more like a solid and is hard to penetrate. The recipe is simple. Two parts Cornstarch; one part water. In this case, about 24 oz of cornstarch in about 14 oz water. Plus a little green coloring for dramatic effect. He put it in a plastic mailing tube that we found at the office, put the egg in, saw that it laid on top of the mess, and sealed the end pieces with duct tape. And that was that. No real opportunity for a test run. Not at that height.

It survived the fall!