ShmoopTube

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There are a few moments in each of our lives that we’ll remember forever:

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our 16th birthday, our wedding, the birth of our first child,

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the first time a strange, glowing orb from outer space lands in our backyard…

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Well, today is that day for Jimmy and Kimmy Clutterbuck.

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They were out on their swing set trying to break the world record for height,

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when this thing just crashed into the family’s deck.

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Opening up the orb, they discovered a strange, gloop-y blob inside.

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Being the passionate little scientists they are,

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they decided to do some experimenting.

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Well first, Kimmy said they should explore the blob’s physical properties.

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Well, physical properties, she explained to her brother,

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were all the properties of an object that could be observed

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without fundamentally changing that object at a chemical level.

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So, for example, the blob was red. Color is a physical property.

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It weighed 75 pounds—strange for such a small blob, but

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weight is also a physical property, so Jimmy jotted it down.

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The number and size of the substance was also a physical property the kids

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could record. Well the number was easy—just one blob—but the size proved

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to be a bit trickier, especially considering how it kept pulsating

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and mutating in their hands.

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However, they finally got it to sit still long enough to wrap a tape measure around it.

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Well taste is another physical property, but, wisely,

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the kids decided not to lick the blob.

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The Clutterbuck children went on to make notes about the blob’s density,

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odor, luster, hardness, and volume.

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They couldn’t seem to get it to either melt or boil no matter

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how hoard they tried, so it looked like they were done

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on the physical properties front.

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Kimmy also explained to Jimmy that they could further divide all their notes

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about physical properties into extensive and intensive properties.

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Well, the extensive properties are the ones that depend

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on the amount of the substance, like its weight and volume,

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while the intensive properties were anything that wouldn’t change

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no matter how knee-deep in blobs you were, like

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color, density, odor, and so on.

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Once they were done, it was time to examine the blob’s chemical properties.

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Chemical properties, Kimmy explained, were those properties

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that were not easily reversible and changed the chemical structure

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of a substance. So once they dipped the blob in something,

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it might totally change it for good. The blob didn’t seem to like that idea.

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The kids started by submerging the blob in water. Nothing.

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The blob just seemed mildly irritated.

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But once they dunked the blob into a beaker full of acetic acid,

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well, the thing went haywire.

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The blob turned from red to a bright green,

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it started to fizz, and there were some bright orange sparks

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coming off the sides.

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It got very hot and emitted an odor similar to that given off by eggs

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that are three years past their expiration date… ew.

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Kimmy and Jimmy were having a hard time keeping up

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as they furiously jotted down notes in their notebooks.

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When the dust cleared, the blob was no more.

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There was just a small, greenish-looking gentleman

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who looked like he’d been through a major ordeal.

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Oops… nobody said science was perfect.

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