Walking on Non-Newtonian Water
I can vaguely define a "Non-Newtonian Fluid" as a substance that behaves neither as a conventional fluid or as a solid but which has morphology (how about them big words) characteristic of both. But I don't understand what it is. Feynman tells a story something along the lines of watching out for people who can spew out impressive definitions but who haven't achieved any kind of understanding. Candidly, this is where I stand with non-newtonian fluids. For example I could even refer you to a wiki page on the stuff which explains that viscosity depends on the strain tensor in non-newtonian fluids. But frankly I definitely have to side with Middlebury College whose history department recently banned citing wikipedia, which was even supported by a very sensible wikipedia spokesperson.
Now a lot of people know this, but just mix cornstarch with water and you have your very own non-newtonian fluid. My high school physics teacher first showed this to me and I was hooked. Squeeze it, press it, roll it and it feels and behaves like a solid. But stop pressing and it will drip all over you. See it on youtube.
I was feeling nostalgic since I haven't played with any of it in a while, so I started surfing youtube and found these crazy guys who mixed up a vat of it and started running around on the stuff. How jealous am I?!!?!?!? Definitely try this at home...