A viral video shows people in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, walking across the liquid. They dance, flipped, play soccer and ride a bike on it.
A substance called non-Newtonian fluid makes all these actions possible. Specifically, the pool above is filled with about 2,100 gallons of a cornstarch and water mixture known as "oobleck" — a homage to Dr. Seuss' book, "Bartholomew and Oobleck."
Non-Newtonian fluids act differently than other liquids, such as water. When pressured by say, the weight of someone walking across it, these substances become solids momentarily, according a paper published in the journal Nature in 2012. This includes things like blood, ketchup, and toothpaste.
The oobleck gets these properties because of the cornstarch. In general, starches don't dissolve in water. Instead, the particles curl up and cling together to form very tiny non-squishy particles.
When pressure is applied (by a person's foot or a bike, for instance) the cornstarch particles get pushed down on top of each other, squeezing the water out from between them. The particles can actually become so thickly jammed together that they form a solid, the researchers found.
But the substance won't stay solid for long. Once energy stops being transferred to the liquid (when a person lifts their foot), the particles are no longer squeezed together. Water fills in gaps between the particles, and the oobleck returns to a more liquid state.
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