Making water flow uphill (sorta)

When I was in high school about 1970, our chemistry teacher put on a
demonstration whereby she added some powder to a pitcher of water,
stirred it, poured it into another pitcher which she then held higher
and the "water" kept flowing. To break the flow she cut the "water"
with scissors. I seem to recall that the powder was also said to make
the water more "slick" (There was speculation among certain class
members as to the effect on the speed of the fish in the aquarium.) I
think that this powder may have been available through a catalog for
novelties advertised on the back of comic books.

Could someone please, please help me discover the name of this product
or its ingredients?

Regards,
Bill Liles

Dear bill,
It was available through Edmund Scientific in Barrington NJ.
best
penny

Bill wrote:


polyethylene oxide

Thanks to both of you! You've made my day!

For the record, Edmund Scientifics at
[Only registered users see links. ] calls their
product
"Moon Blob Gel" and it doesn't look like pure polyethylene oxide.
Poly-ox is also available from Educational Inovations, Inc. at
[Only registered users see links. ]

Regards,
Bill Liles

[Only registered users see links. ] (Bill) wrote in message news:<ace4b664.0312240800.40255b86@posting.google. com>...

Polyethylene oxide is commonly know for increasing the flow rate of
water if it is added at very small amounts, but I would use
polyacrylamide if I really wanted to thicken it up and make it
cuttable with a high relaxation time.

Prof. Cussler at the University of Minnesota recently ran an
experiment in one of the school's swimming pools. He succeeded in
talking the staff into letting him dump guar into the pool and then
letting the swim team have at it to see if the increased viscosity
changed their times at all.

[Only registered users see links. ]

Lastly, there was an article in Science or Nature about 10 years ago
where they made water (not water with polygoop in it) go uphill. They
put a drop on a special surface that had a gradient in surface tension
so that the water moved up a slope of about 30 degrees if I recall
correctly.

John