Can you use Play-Doh for squishy circuits?
Squishy Circuits is fun, easy, and inspires creativity! Projects use two play doughs – one that is conductive and one that is insulative. Power comes from a 4AA battery pack and travels through the conductive dough to provide power to LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), buzzers, or motors.
Who created squishy circuits?
AnnMarie Thomas
AnnMarie Thomas, the founder and director of the Playful Learning Lab, and undergraduate researchers, including Matthew Schmidtbauer and Sam Johnson, created a method for using homemade conductive and insulating doughs to teach electrical circuits and engineering concepts through play.
Why is playdough a conductor?
Why does play dough conduct electricity? Play-dough contains salt dissolved in water, which conducts electricity. The insulating dough contains sugar which does not conduct electricity.
Is playdough an insulator?
Salty water conducts electricity, which makes ordinary play dough a reasonably good conductor. Replacing the salt in play dough with sugar produces dough that conducts so poorly at low voltages that it functions like a non-conducting insulator.
What is squishy circuit?
Use homemade conductive and resistant play-doh to build electronic sculptures that light up, move, and make sounds. We use battery packs, LED lights, hobby motors, and buzzers to explore electricity in a fun, hands-on way. We were inspired by this TED talk by AnnMarie Thomas to develop this activity.
How do you make conductive playdough?
Conductive Dough Recipe
- Materials. 1-1/2 Cup Flour.
- Mix 1 cup of water, 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup of salt, 3 Tbsp. cream of tartar, 1 Tbsp.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring continuously.
- Continue heating and stirring until the mixture forms a ball and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the saucepan.
Is playdoh a conductor?
Salty water conducts electricity, which makes ordinary play dough a reasonably good conductor. Sugary water doesn’t conduct electricity nearly as well. Replacing the salt in play dough with sugar produces dough that conducts so poorly at low voltages that it functions like a non-conducting insulator.
Is Clay a conductor of electricity?
The clay conductivity contributes effectively to the process of electric-current conduction, particularly when the medium is saturated with fresh water. In the present study, the conductivity of clays was investigated in relation to the formation resistivity factor and specific surface area.
What can you make with a squishy circuit?
Keep reading to learn how you can make any light-up sculpture you imagine, such as a house with lights in the windows, an animal with light-up eyes, or a colorful butterfly. Squishy Circuits were originally developed by the Thomas Lab at the University of St. Thomas. This activity is not recommended for use as a science fair project.
What makes the light go out on a squishy circuit?
As long as the LED was facing the proper direction (long leg connected to the conductive dough with the red wire, short leg connected to the dough with the black wire), it should have lit up. If you pushed the lumps of dough together, this created a short circuit and made the LED go out.
What can you do with play dough circuits?
In this project, you will use play dough that conducts electricity, which will allow you to connect lights to your sculptures! This project is the first in a three-part series on play dough circuits, which can all be done with the same materials. We recommend doing the projects in order.
How can you prevent short circuits in Play Doh?
You can prevent short circuits by using insulating dough as an insulating layer between the lumps of conductive dough. Since insulating dough (yellow in the picture below) does not conduct electricity, you can use it to help prevent short circuits in more complicated sculptures.