When slime is pulled quickly it breaks, but when it is pulled slowly it stretches. Explain what is going on at the molecular level that accounts for these observations.
Slime is a flexible material made up of polyvinyl alcohol polymers that are held (or cross linked) together. In the first beaker we have a polyvinyl alcohol solution where long chains are floating around that look like this:
The weak hydrogen bonds break and reform continuously while the slime is being stretched. If it is pulled too quickly they don’t have time to reform.
so when slime is pulled quickly it breaks, but when it is pulled slowly it stretches.
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