How to Make a High-Bouncing Ball and Silly Putty Out of Home Materials

This article will show you how to make two classic 80's toys. Just don't go attacking the cat or doing something regretful with the silly putty!

Ah...childhood. As a kid, I used to love to play with all types of toys...be them electronic or plastic. I found it equally amusing back then to run my remote-controlled car into the leg of a table or have the dog chase (or be chased by) my many toys of terror. But ultimately, some of the most fun I ever had as a small child was not with the expensive things...but instead the cheap glow-in-the-dark toys and those high bouncing balls you used to be able to get out of the gum-ball machines. I haven't yet figured out the best way to make a glow-in-the-dark toy, but I can tell you in this article how to make your very own high bouncing plastic ball.

You'll need to get 5 things ready to make your very own high bouncing ball:

1. Sodium Silicate solution (You can get this from any general science store. It may also be known as 'liquid glass'). 2. Ethyl alcohol
3. A wooden stick, popsicle stick, or small wooden spoon to stir with.
4. A glass jar
5. Plastic gloves

High Bouncing Ball Directions:

Using the glass jar, combine 5 milliliters of the ethyl alcohol with 20 milliliters of the sodium silicate solution. Ionic changes will then take place, creating a silicone polymer that we can work with further. Now you will want to put on the plastic gloves you bought and roll the material/polymer with your palms for about two to three minutes (adding a drop of water or two as-needed while you do this). It finally becomes a slippery ball that you can throw hard against the floor, against the wall, or any other solid surface and watch it go flying!

How to make Silly Putty:

This is a classic fun toy I used to use as a child to copy newsprint and basically make fun stuff out of. On this section, I'll show you an easy way that I found out in grade school on how to make a clone of silly putty using Borax and household materials.

To make your own silly putty clone, you'll need the following items:

A plastic spoon
An air-tight container (a Ziploc baggie will work)
Elmer's glue
Food coloring (any color you like)

Directions:

Put about a half cup of water into a bowl. Then add the food coloring to the water and mix it together for about 30 seconds. Next, measure out about a half cup of water, then using the plastic spoon add about 1 table spoon of borax to that water, and then add that to the bowl also.

Mix the contents together in the bowl, and use your hands if you desire to knead it a little as if it were dough. It should start to come together the more you do.

The final step is to place what we made into an air-tight container (or a Ziploc baggie if you don't have air-tight Tupperware or anything else similar available).

Let it sit for about an hour without touching it. After an hour, you should have your very own silly putty.

If you want to try a few other experiments with more batches of silly putty, you can try adding different colors, glitter, or even fragrances to it. You'll have mixed results (no pun intended!) but most of your experiments with that should be a success. Have fun!