• Question: what is a polymer?

    Asked by farrell to Judith on 14 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Judith McCann

      Judith McCann answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      Good question, Polymers are basically plastics. They are chains made up of different or repeating units, by replacing out the units materials with new properties can be made. This means they are a really versatile material-they can be hard and brittle (like toilet seats) or rubbery and soft (like contact lenses). alot of things around you will be made of polymers, like drinks bottle, headlights in cars, the casing on the computer your typing on!!

      Polymers happen a lot in nature, like oil, plastic, even proteins in the body can be thought of as polymers (with amino acids as repeat units)

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