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A Kaleidoscope of Magic Moooving Milk

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Published: 11/01/2007 10:33 am

Updated: 11/06/2007 8:53 am

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Materials:
1 Cup Whole Milk	A Plate	A Toothpick or Q-tip
4 or More Different Food Colors		1tsp. Liquid Dish Water Detergent

Procedure:

Cover a plate with a thin layer of milk. Add a few drops of different food coloring to the milk. Keep the drops close together but not touching. Place drop of dish water detergent on a toothpick or Q-tip. Place the Q-tip or toothpick in the middle of the plate and hold it there for about 10 seconds. It is a kaleidoscope of milky color!

What's Going On:

Milk is made up of water, minerals, vitamins, proteins, and tiny pieces of fat spread throughout the milk. Adding soap does a couple of things to the milk. First, it breaks up the fat globules and weakens the chemical bonds of proteins. This pushes and pulls the food color molecules every which way. Colors also explode because milk is mostly water and it has surface tension much like water. Adding soap destroys surface tension by destroying bonds between water molecules. This causes color to move and then move some more.

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