The College of Engineering sponsored the five-day-long Materials Camp, allowing some 25 high-school students to do everything from make glass to study the properties of Silly Putty. On June 28, about 150 people watched N.C. State engineering students drop an 80-pound ball of Silly Putty off the top of D.H. Hill Library.

Ryan McClellan, a graduate student in materials sciences, said they chose Silly Putty because “it won’t flow like you think it should.”

McClellan described the substance as a viscoelastic polymer, or a non-Newtonian liquid.

Krystian Kozek, a senior in materials science and chemistry, said this means Silly Putty acts like both a solid and a liquid. Upon impact, he said, Silly Putty acts like a solid and breaks into pieces. As it gets hot in the sun, it melts like a liquid.