Oobleck Camp

Oobleck is Dr. Seuss's whimsical name for what we call a "non-newtonian fluid."  This is the general tag given to all fluids that do not obey the Newtonian laws for basic fluid dynamics.   It violates these laws by having a non-constant viscosity: as the shear (motion along, not perpendicular to, a surface of the fluid) on the fluid increases, so does the viscosity.  In other words, the harder you hit it, the more it resists, so you can swing a sledgehammer as hard as you can on it and it will bounce off, but dip your finger in and you can go all the way to the bottom.

More specifically, Oobleck is a paste made of corn starch and water (I know, what a less cool description) at a ratio between 1.6:1 and 2:1 cornstarch:water by volume.   The more cornstarch, the more viscous, and faster increase in viscosity with shear.  Anything more than 2:1 is both impossible to mix and becomes basically solid.

In fact, you can play around with it at home by just buying a little cornstarch and playing around with it; it's our experience that no description can really convey just how weird and cool a substance this is.   Come on, buy some cornstarch.   It's really easy. For more on the science of Oobleck, click here.

• When we came back from the playa last year, a lot of us felt almost guilty; we had brought 25 people to playa and contributed no art at all.   Among projects as grand as the Waffle House and as ridiculous as the giant topless see-saw called "The Titty-Totter," we had been a little camp of (we thought) unusually interesting and smart people, but no identity in the larger scheme of things.   We gave nothing back to the playa except our eager participation
• This year, bringing still more people, it was unthinkable that we should come another year and again not contribute.  So, we looked around, pooled our thoughts, and came up with a small, relatively inexpensive project that will let us give back to the greater playa

We picked Oobleck because it is a substance that violates our preconceptions about the way the world works.   In this way it is a microcosm of the whole Burning Man experience: a simple change in our surrounding conditions completely changes our perceptions of the general world.

The best way to experience Oobleck is to make some yourself.   Simply buy some standard cornstarch at your local grocery store and mix a little bit less than 2:1 cornstarch:water, and voila: Oobleck.

Failing this, we've brought together two of the better YouTube videos out there that will give you an idea of what it is:

• 8 YouTube videos demonstrating some of the properties of Oobleck

Our conception is really quite simple.  We are going to build a shallow tank about two paces long, and we will open it to the public for four hours a day for people to play with.  Everyone who comes into contact with Oobleck invents a new way of manipulating it, and just a simple interaction can bring a sense of wonder to someone's face.   We will bring implements for people to play with, such as straws, hammers, and balls, among others, and the tank will be long enough that people can walk quickly across it but sink in if they want to.

So, to tell you what a Non-Newtonian Fluid is, we should probably say a little about what a Newtonian fluid is.

Newton approached the problem of fluid mechanics in a brilliant and ingenious way. He conceived of a fluid (that is, any substance that conforms to the shape of its container, not just liquids) as a series of infinitely thin planes sliding against one another. The property of resistance in the fluid, what we call viscosity, directly comes from the constant coefficient of friction between any set of planes in the fluid.

In this way, he enabled scientists not to worry about how individual particles actually interact in a fluid, but rather they could treat a fluid as a Continuum, or a continuous, non-discrete material. If we take a piece of fabric as an analogy, instead of worrying over exactly where each thread is, and how much stress was on each thread, we could approximate the intricate network of woven thread as continuous and undivided.

Non-Newtonian Fluids violate the continuum hypothesis. Under certain circumstances (there are many types of such fluids), such fluids will not fill their containers, will not have constant viscosity, or will in some other way violate the ideal characteristics of a Newtonian fluid. Water is a perfect example of a newtonian fluid. Since it behaves basically as a continuous material, if you drag an object through it, the water immediately fills the space vacated by the object.

Oobleck, which is what we are using in our camp, belongs to a class of fluids called Shear-Thickening Fluids. Its viscosity increases with its shear. So, although you can drip oobleck into a can and slosh it around, you can punch it and, instead of moving to accommodate your solid hand, its viscosity will increase and stop your hand from breaking the surface.

For more information about the theory behind Non-Newtonian fluids, visit Answers.com, or go to the Non-Newtonian Fluid Lab at MIT for videos, papers, and more. Also, if you are affiliated with an educational institution, you may have access to the Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics.

Our principal needs are listed on the Art Needs page.   Our biggest need is a pickup truck or trailer to carry somewhere around 1000lbs of cornstarch and water to burning man.

If you want to or can help out with any of the things listed there, contribute financially, or help out in any way you can, please Email Us.  We need your help.