How can you tell Polymers apart? Unless you have super microscopic vision, you probably can't see the molecules that make up different substances. So how do you know it's a polymer? If we're talking about food there are two things you want to look for: Protein and stretchiness. Protein is the easy one…you can just look on the nutrients label. Stretchiness is another story. Some stretchy foods include: gum, gummy bears, and twizzlers. If you're not talking about food how can you tell if something is a polymer? If you look around the house at different things you'll find polymers in plastics and rubber objects. Remember every plastic is a polymer! What did you notice about the Silly Plubber you made? Does it flow like water? Or does it flow very slowly? One property of polymers is that they are highly viscous. Viscosity is a fluid's resistance to flow. "Huh?" you ask again. Well, water likes to flow very fast. Just turn on the faucet in your sink and you can see that. But not all liquids are in such a hurry to get somewhere. Have you ever put maple syrup on your pancakes? Does maple syrup come out as fast as water? No. And we say that maple syrup is more viscous than water. Well, polymers like our slime tend to be more viscous. In fact, talking about maple syrup, it is a polymer too! So next time you have maple syrup with your breakfast, tell your little brother he's eating polymers!