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At the risk of making an unpaid endorsement, we think no childhood is complete without (accidentally) chucking a SuperBall into mom's crystal display case. Indeed, when it comes to instigating pure household chaos, nothing tops these wee bouncing balls of anarchy. So what gives SuperBalls their tremendous power? We leaped over to toymaker Wham-O's official site for some answers. Or not. Unfortunately, the good people at Wham-O offered little explanation. However, they did give us one hint, claiming their SuperBall is made of something called "Zectron." Hmm, "Zectron" sounds a lot like some made-up Willy Wonka word rather than real scientific
material. But just to be sure, we put it in the Search box. It turns out Zectron is legit, combining polybutadiene with sulfur. It was discovered by the ball's inventor, Norman Stingley. Like the adhesive behind Post-It Notes, this new rubber compound wasn't an intentional invention, but the material's ability to rebound 90 percent when greatly compressed led Stingley to believe he had a hit toy on his hands. And, of course, he was right.
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