Milk & Soap Experiment

This experiment was pretty fun.  And once again we had to do it a few times because the girls really loved it.  Both girls had fun painting with the q-tip, since the color moves around the milk when you put the q-tip covered with dish soap in the milk.  My oldest thought it was just the coolest thing and would swoosh her q-tip all over the plate at once, where my little one was much more serious about the whole thing mixing just one color at a time. 

The Science behind this is that the milk contains fat and the dish soap dissolves the fat (that is why it is so great at cleaning dishes).  The food color does nothing but make it possible to see this happening.  If you just stuck your soap filled q-tip in the milk without food color you would not see anything change.  However by adding the food color you can see the milk change when the soap touches it.

Over time during the experiment you will notice the movement of the colors slows down.  That is because the soap has now done it's job and removed the fat from the milk.  When this happens you have two options.  Say the experiment is over and clean up, or clean off your plates and do it again.

Another great thing you can do with this experiment is play with color mixing.  Just add red and blue food color and watch it mix and combine to form purple.  Or red and yellow to make orange, blue and yellow to make green.

If you liked this Experiment don't forget to check out all our other Science Experiments.

Supplies

Milk (Whole or 2%)
Food Coloring
Dawn Dish Soap
Plate with a Lip
Q-Tips

Directions

Pour Milk onto your plate.

Put a few drops of food coloring around the milk.

Dip your Q-Tip in dish soap.

Dip your Q-tip in the milk and swirl around.

The soap repels the fat in the milk and makes the food color explode around.

 

This is great for mixing colors too!