Rainbow Milk Experiment

Nathan...."woahhh, this is awesome!!

you will need:

shallow dish

milk

food color

dish soap

and a q tip

pour some milk into a shallow dish, add a few drops of food coloring to the sides of the dish

add a drop of dish soap in the middle and watch it swirl...you can also use a q tip dipped in dish soap to make things move around and swirl them more....Nathan loved it.

Nathan loved it so much that he did this over and over using different colors.

how is works....

according to Steve Spangler's website:

Milk is mostly water but it also contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, and tiny droplets of fat suspended in solution. Fats and proteins are sensitive to changes in the surrounding solution (the milk).

The secret of the bursting colors is the chemistry of that tiny drop of soap. Dish soap, because of its bipolar characteristics (nonpolar on one end and polar on the other), weakens the chemical bonds that hold the proteins and fats in solution. The soap's polar, or hydrophilic (water-loving), end dissolves in water, and its hydrophobic (water-fearing) end attaches to a fat globule in the milk. This is when the fun begins.
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.
Try adding another drop of soap to see if there's any more movement. If so, you discovered there are still more fat molecules that haven't found a partner at the big color dance. Add another drop of soap to start the process again.

Check out Steve's website for other cool science experiments for kids.