Edit: please explain like I am actually five.
In: 2979
The best explanation is just that “silicone” is a broad category. Think of all of the things you make from crude oil (the stuff that’s pumped out of the ground). Gasoline, petroleum jelly (Vaseline), and asphalt (road tar) are all part of that crude oil, and can be purified out by carefully boiling that material that’s pumped out of the ground. If you alter it even more, you can make plastics out of it – or even transform it into things like food colorings.
In this analogy, silicone lubricant is like gasoline, while non-slip silicone rubber is more like plastic. Other silicone products (a great example would be the moldable silicone earplugs you can get in the store) are more like petroleum jelly. They’re all made from the same base material, but their properties are selected by altering the molecules in different ways.
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