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Video Closed Captions

Poly-

Poly-

Poly-

-mer.

-mer.

Polymer!

[music]

What all Polymers are, are long-chain molecules.

Every polymer is some kind of a long-chain molecule.

[music]

Many mers together, and now we're a polymer.

The ability to bear stress -- that makes it useful as a clothing

fiber, for example.

-- Or, the ability to entangle, to give it rubbery properties, which

makes it useful as your shoe sole.

All of those things come from the long-chain nature.

And so, once you begin to understand that, you begin see what

makes polymers special.

Poly-

-mer.

Poly-

-mer.

Poly-

-mer.

Poly-

-mer.

[laughs]

[music]

This is a polymeric liquid, so if you apply sheer force slowly,

it will flow as a liquid.

Whereas, if you apply sheer force quickly, the chains will

entangle, and it will behave as a solid.

Rubber bands are made out of a polymer.

When it gets really cold, these chains, they can't slide

past each other anymore.

They're locked in place.

[children exclaim]

Slime!

There are polymers in diapers.

The natural proteins -- DNA is a polymer.

We eat polymers.

I've had Silly Putty before, which is a polymer.

My favorite polymer?

I will say Silly Putty.

That's what Silly Putty is. Silly Putty is a collection of polymer chains.

They're tangled up.

They're entangled with each other.

... A chain of molecules that are chained chemically,

and that can hold a certain amount of fluids.

A polymer is a long molecule of repeating parts.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

Polymer.

[laughs]

[music]

Poly- whoo!

[laughs]

[music]