Hypothesis: If you increase the amount of borax in a bouncy ball, then the ball will bounce higher because you create more cross-links to make it more elastic.
Results:
The amount of borax affects the bounciness of a ball by helping to create cross-links. When there are lots of cross-links, the ball is more elastic and can bounce higher. With too many cross-links, the ball becomes hard and more solid because it can't stretch very far. With not enough cross-links, the glue and cornstarch molecules will flow too easily and the borax can't hold the mixture together, so the ball couldn't bounce.
Was my hypothesis correct?
My hypothesis was correct, because the ball bounced higher when I added more borax, but I found that when I added more than 20% borax, the height decreased. This happened because more borax made so many cross-links that the molecules were too stuck together and they couldn't stretch as far.
More than 20% borax made it so that there were too many cross-links which made it harder and steadfast.When there are too many cross-links, it becomes harder for the molecules to spring back and forth because they are so stuck. I observed that the ball with the least amount of borax was very squishy. This is because there weren't enough cross-links to hold the mixture together which prevented it from bouncing higher. Imagine you have two nets and you stretch them as far as they can go. The net with big and few weaves would stretch farther than a net with small and many weaves.
How could I improve my project?
I could have given more variations of mixtures by making more balls and adding more borax so that I could better base my information off of my actual experiment and so that I could ensure that I've eliminated any random effects of variations in my experiment.
Results:
The amount of borax affects the bounciness of a ball by helping to create cross-links. When there are lots of cross-links, the ball is more elastic and can bounce higher. With too many cross-links, the ball becomes hard and more solid because it can't stretch very far. With not enough cross-links, the glue and cornstarch molecules will flow too easily and the borax can't hold the mixture together, so the ball couldn't bounce.
Was my hypothesis correct?
My hypothesis was correct, because the ball bounced higher when I added more borax, but I found that when I added more than 20% borax, the height decreased. This happened because more borax made so many cross-links that the molecules were too stuck together and they couldn't stretch as far.
More than 20% borax made it so that there were too many cross-links which made it harder and steadfast.When there are too many cross-links, it becomes harder for the molecules to spring back and forth because they are so stuck. I observed that the ball with the least amount of borax was very squishy. This is because there weren't enough cross-links to hold the mixture together which prevented it from bouncing higher. Imagine you have two nets and you stretch them as far as they can go. The net with big and few weaves would stretch farther than a net with small and many weaves.
How could I improve my project?
I could have given more variations of mixtures by making more balls and adding more borax so that I could better base my information off of my actual experiment and so that I could ensure that I've eliminated any random effects of variations in my experiment.