LARGE AMPLITUDE OSCILLATORY SHEAR Simple to describe, hard to interpret

Silly Putty, the classic toy that can stretch, bounce, snap, and mold, provides endless hours of amusement. It is an elastic liquid, so-called because it simultaneously exhibits both solid-like (elastic) and liquid-like (viscous) behaviors. The viscoelasticity of Silly Putty is evidenced by the way it bounces off a table like a rubber ball when interacting quickly with the surface and flows like a thick syrup when left alone for a long time. Is Silly Putty a solid or a liquid? The answer depends on the time scale over which it is observed. Typical viscoelastic materials are elastic at short times and viscous at long times.