Experiment: Make Your Own Quick Sand

Enjoy our range of fun science experiments for kids that feature awesome hands-on projects and activities that help bring the exciting world of science to life. Make Your Own Quick Sand Quick sand is a fascinating substance, make some of your own and experiment on a safe scale. Amaze your friends by demonstrating how it works.

What you'll need:

• 1 cup of maize cornflour
• Half a cup of water
• A large plastic container
• A spoon

Instructions:

1. This one is simple, just mix the cornflour and water thoroughly in the container to make your own instant quick sand.
2. When showing other people how it works, stir slowly and drip the quick sand to show it is a liquid.
3. Stirring it quickly will make it hard and allow you to punch or poke it quickly (this works better if you do it fast rather than hard).
4. Remember that quick sand is messy, try to play with it outside and don’t forget to stir just before you use it.
5. Always stir instant quicksand just before you use it!

What's happening?

If you add just the right amount of water to cornflour it becomes very thick when you stir it quickly. This happens because the cornflour grains are mixed up and can’t slide over each other due to the lack of water between them. Stirring slowly allows more water between the cornflour grains, letting them slide over each other much easier.

Poking it quickly has the same effect, making the substance very hard.  If you poke it slowly it doesn’t mix up the mixture in the same way, leaving it runny.  It works in much the same way as real quick sand.