Happy Easter everyone 🐰 Today’s #VirtualScienceLab is a colorful and easy one to do.
*Apologize for the music, I have a raspy voice and wasn’t able to talk in this video*
Today’s Experiment: Easter Milk Fireworks
Supplies: Milk, Food Coloring, Plate, Liquid Soap, Q-Tip
Instructions:
1. Pour milk onto your plate
2. Put several drops of different food coloring in the middle of the plate
3. Squeeze some liquid soap onto the Q-Tip
4. Take q-tip and dip it into the food coloring. Enjoy the fireworks!
The Science: Like other oils, milk fat is a non-polar molecule and that means it doesn’t dissolve in water. When soap is mixed in, however, the non-polar (hydrophobic) portion of micelles (molecular soap structures in solution) break up and collect the non-polar fat molecules. Then the polar surface of the micelle (hydrophilic) connects to a polar water molecule with the fat held inside the soap micelle.
The molecules of fat bend, roll, twist, and contort in all directions as the soap molecules race around to join up with the fat molecules. During all of this fat molecule gymnastics, the food coloring molecules are bumped and shoved everywhere, providing an easy way to observe all the invisible activity. As the soap becomes evenly mixed with the milk, the action slows down and eventually stops. This is why milk with a higher fat content produces a better explosion of color. But since I’m only a fan of Almond Milk, the explosion in the video didn’t have a “Big Bang” 🙃🚀Try it with Whole Milk and let me see how it turns out.
