How Does Play Dough Conduct Electricity?

Squishy Circuits uses sculpting dough and electrical components to teach kids about science and engineering concepts through play. We break down the basics of circuitry with fun and simple projects that encourage exploration, creativity, and curiosity. But how does it work? And how does play dough conduct electricity? We’re glad you asked. Let’s explore.

Circuits and Electricity

A circuit is a complete path through which electricity can travel. That electricity usually flows from a power source (an outlet or battery), through a conductor (a wire), to something that uses electricity (a bulb or motor), and then back to the power source. This completes the circuit and allows electricity to flow. And this is what our Squishy Circuits projects do. 

Our projects use conductive dough and insulating dough. Conductive dough allows electricity to pass through it while insulating dough does not. We’ll get to that later. 
Electricity exits the battery pack (the power source) and runs through a wire into one portion of conductive dough in a Squishy project. The energy from that electricity needs a connection to return to the power source and complete the circuit. 

When two (or more) portions of your project are separated by a strip of insulating dough, the circuit cannot be completed. That’s where components such as LEDs come in. Attaching each prong of the LED bulb to either portion of dough connects the pieces and allows the energy to flow through and back to the power source, connecting the circuit and producing light (electricity) along the way.

If your LED bulb doesn’t light up, there’s no need to worry. LEDs have polarity, which means electricity only travels in one direction. Once you flip the bulb and re-insert its prongs into the opposite pieces of dough, the bulb will light up!

How Salt Factors In

Now, let’s look at the two types of Squishy Circuits dough. As we mentioned before, the conductive dough allows an electrical current to flow through it while the insulating dough does not. So, what’s the difference? Salt.

Salt is a key ingredient not only because it helps preserve the dough but because, when mixed with water, salt conducts electricity. As the salt dissolves, the polarity in water pulls apart the salt molecules into ions with positive and negative charges. Those ions move around and carry electricity through the dough. 

Attaching a power source, like the Squishy Circuits battery pack, to your project introduces positive and negatives sides to the dough. The positive ions from the salt are attracted to the negative side, while the negative ions are attracted to the positive side. And that movement creates the flow of electrical current that powers your project. Pretty cool, isn’t it?

If you’re wondering why this doesn’t work with the insulating dough, the answer is short and sweet: sugar. The recipe for our insulating dough uses sugar in place of salt. Sugar molecules are neutral, and dissolved sugar does not create ions. So, electricity does not flow though the insulating dough because sugar is not a conductor. 

Create and Explore with Squishy Circuits

Now that you have a better understanding of how play dough conducts electricity, you’re ready to create and explore! We have a whole collection of Squishy Circuits projects, with step-by-step instructions on how to build them and watch them come to life. But with our kits and your active imagination, there’s no limit to creativity, learning, and fun.

Ready to learn more about science, technology, and engineering with Squishy Circuits? Find out what our kits have to offer and order yours today. Then invent, create, and explore!