This blog post is another a debate showdown! We take topics and make them into a debate!! Today’s topic is… Natural Plastics vs. Human-Made Plastics! Remember, please send us what type of material you think is more useful by going to www.spectacularsci.com/debateform and fill out our poll.
Human-Made Plastics
Plastic is a type of polymer. Polymers are certain materials that have atoms that are bonded together in a link pattern. Atoms are the tiny building blocks of all elements. When atoms bond together, like in polymers, they form molecules! Poly means many and mer or mers means units. Polymers means many units! Plastic is made up of atoms that are twisted together in chains. The atoms in polymers have chains of atoms that help make polymers flexible, moldable, and strong. They are flexible because the chains of atoms can be twisted or turned in many different shapes, sometimes even when the object is a solid! It is moldable (or easy to twist into different shapes) because when the polymers get hot, they start to separate. When the material cools down, the atoms settle down in chains of atoms again. The chain-like structure of polymers help the material have more strength. The twisted shape allows more atoms to be present. That makes the object more dense, which makes the material strong, flexible, and moldable. Plastic is made out of oil. It is a specific type of oil that is sucked from the ground. That is what a human-made plastic is.
Natural Plastics
Natural plastics are any natural material that has the polymer structure. That is a structure that has a chain of molecules. Natural plastics were used before human-made plastics were invented. Natural plastics are formed with the polymer structure. Examples of these natural plastics are rubber, skin, bones, and even DNA. Rubber from rubber trees were used to make balls thousands of years ago! Before the invention of human-made plastics, humans quickly realized that natural plastics had a great power. This is what natural plastics are!
Remember, please send us what type of material you think is more useful by going to www.spectacularsci.com/debateform and fill out our poll.