Greg is so excited about being at the pool store that he's already got his goggles on! He knows that there's no better place to dive into the world of polymers than here. There are so many polymers here, we're practically swimming in them! So let's take a look at a few of the polymers floating around this place. First of all there are those goggles he's wearing. They contain a lot of rubber. Sometimes even the lenses are made of polymers like polycarbonate.

In the old days, a swimming pool was a big hole in the ground lined with concrete. But no more! Today's pools are made by just dropping a flexible lining in the hole, and that lining is made from PVC. Of course, above ground pools like this one Paul Lemur is swimming in have used PVC liners for years.

This hot tub, which is good for relaxing, or making several hundred gallons of split pea soup if the need arises, is also made of polymers. The surface is made of poly(methyl methacrylate). That's the same stuff as Plexiglas^®.

Swimming is fun, but drowning isn't. This life preserver can keep that from happening. It is made of Styrofoam^®, which is a form of polystyrene. The rope around it is also made of polymers. It's made of nylon. Nylon stands up to water better than cotton or hemp rope. (Cotton and hemp are made of polymers, too, by the way, a polymer called cellulose.)

Playing in the pool is always more fun with inflatable toys, made out of polyethylene and sometimes PVC. As we all know, the kids love the inflatable pool vacuum cleaner toy most of all.

Swimming is great exercise, but thanks to this floating pool chair your time in the water can be spent doing nothing at all! The webbing on chairs like this is made from polypropylene. The arms rests, which also make the chair float, are hollow boxes made of polyethylene.

Also for the aquatic couch potato is the float you see dwarfing Stacy. The outside is made of PVC and the inside is made of Styrofoam^® to make it float. (Remember that's polystyrene.)

Pools are fun, but they're work, too. With these nylon nets we can keep leaves and dead bugs out of the pool.

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