Color Changing Milk
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Are you ready for some fun with a little milk, food coloring and dish washing
soap? Watch as changes in surface tension make the colors explode!
Watch Video
Materials:
1) Regular Milk (not skim, fate free, or low-fat)
2) Plate
3) Food Coloring (red, yellow, green, blue)
4) Dawn Dish Washing Soap (or one that claims to "cut the grease")
5) Q-Tips / Cotton swabs
Process
1. Pour the milk onto the plate. Just enough to cover the bottom.
2. Towards the center of the plate add one drop of each food coloring (Red,
Blue, Green, Yellow)
3. Dip the Q-Tip / cotton swab into the Dawn dish-washing soap.
4. Insert the cotton swab into the milk in the center between all the food
coloring dots. Hold it there for about 15 seconds. Do not move the swab
around and stir or mix. Just hold it there.
5. Watch as the colors swirl and explode!
6. Repeat with another fresh soapy swab in a different place on the plate. Look
carefully and notice the colors continue to swirl and mix even after you have
removed the swab.
The Science:
Milk contains many things but much of it is made up of water, proteins, and
fats. When the "grease cutting" soap is added to the milk, the fat and protein
chemical bonds are deteriorated and everything gets set loose. The fat and
protein molecules explode in all directions. The molecules in the food coloring
go all over as well, making it easy to see whats happening. Changes in
surface tension also contribute the water molecules in the milk zinging
around. When the Dawn soap is added, it reeks Havok on the milk / water
surface tension destroying the bonds that hold everything together. And the
colors fly!
Science Experiment:
What kind of milk works best? Whole? Low Fat? Skim? Soy? Make a
hypothesis, test, record data, and draw conclusions.
soap? Watch as changes in surface tension make the colors explode!
Watch Video
Materials:
1) Regular Milk (not skim, fate free, or low-fat)
2) Plate
3) Food Coloring (red, yellow, green, blue)
4) Dawn Dish Washing Soap (or one that claims to "cut the grease")
5) Q-Tips / Cotton swabs
Process
1. Pour the milk onto the plate. Just enough to cover the bottom.
2. Towards the center of the plate add one drop of each food coloring (Red,
Blue, Green, Yellow)
3. Dip the Q-Tip / cotton swab into the Dawn dish-washing soap.
4. Insert the cotton swab into the milk in the center between all the food
coloring dots. Hold it there for about 15 seconds. Do not move the swab
around and stir or mix. Just hold it there.
5. Watch as the colors swirl and explode!
6. Repeat with another fresh soapy swab in a different place on the plate. Look
carefully and notice the colors continue to swirl and mix even after you have
removed the swab.
The Science:
Milk contains many things but much of it is made up of water, proteins, and
fats. When the "grease cutting" soap is added to the milk, the fat and protein
chemical bonds are deteriorated and everything gets set loose. The fat and
protein molecules explode in all directions. The molecules in the food coloring
go all over as well, making it easy to see whats happening. Changes in
surface tension also contribute the water molecules in the milk zinging
around. When the Dawn soap is added, it reeks Havok on the milk / water
surface tension destroying the bonds that hold everything together. And the
colors fly!
Science Experiment:
What kind of milk works best? Whole? Low Fat? Skim? Soy? Make a
hypothesis, test, record data, and draw conclusions.
