{"id":240798,"date":"2026-07-14T00:47:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:47:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/oobleck-droplets-reveal-5-ways-cornstarch-goo-behaves-when-hitting-water"},"modified":"2026-07-14T00:47:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:47:07","slug":"oobleck-droplets-reveal-5-ways-cornstarch-goo-behaves-when-hitting-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/oobleck-droplets-reveal-5-ways-cornstarch-goo-behaves-when-hitting-water","title":{"rendered":"Oobleck droplets reveal 5 ways cornstarch \u2018goo\u2019 behaves when hitting water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/oobleck-droplets-reveal-5-ways-cornstarch-goo-behaves-when-hitting-water.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Cornstarch can thicken soup or serve as a base for a DIY shampoo, but there\u2019s more to the humble pantry staple. Given the right conditions, it seems to defy the laws of physics. Mixing cornstarch with water creates \u201coobleck\u201d\u2014a shape-shifting substance classified as a non-Newtonian fluid that changes states when subjected to a force.<\/p>\n<p>Leave it alone, and it oozes like liquid. Stir it up, and it gets more viscous before locking into a solid. Under certain conditions, if it\u2019s punctured, it can even fracture, according to Northeastern University researchers. The thickening phenomenon is known as the oobleck effect.<\/p>\n<p>Back in 1949, Seuss made oobleck famous as the \u201cgreen goo\u201d wreaking havoc on a fictional kingdom that a boy named Bartholomew endeavors to rescue. But today, Northeastern mechanical and industrial engineering scientist Xiaoyu Tang and Ph.D. student Boqian Yan are using the same mix of ingredients for a different purpose.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cornstarch can thicken soup or serve as a base for a DIY shampoo, but there\u2019s more to the humble pantry staple. Given the right conditions, it seems to defy the laws of physics. Mixing cornstarch with water creates \u201coobleck\u201d\u2014a shape-shifting substance classified as a non-Newtonian fluid that changes states when subjected to a force. Leave [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engineering","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}